State auditor dings port

A recent Washington State Auditor’s Office report dings the Port of Camas-Washougal and condemns the port’s decision to select contractors from a list of pre-qualified architectural and engineering firms, rather than going through the federally required request for proposals (RFP) process.

According to the auditor’s report, in 2017, the port spent $1.2 million in federal program funds to construct its largest structure to date, the 49,500-square-foot Building 18 in the Washougal-based Steigerwald Commerce Center, including $134,332 to hire two contractors, Johansson Architecture, P.C., of Battle Ground, and MacKay Sposito, of Vancouver, for architectural and engineering services. The state auditor’s office concluded the port’s process for selecting those two firms did not meet federal requirements.