California’s High-Speed Rail Authority paid more than $2 million in travel-related costs to four contracted consulting firms over two fiscal years, and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) found hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses that violated state regulations or contract terms. Charges included private-plane travel, luxury rideshares and trips to a nightclub and cigar lounge.<\/p>\n
The OIG says $680,500 of the roughly $1.15 million in expenses it reviewed lacked documented advance approval, while $592,900 in combined expenses were identified as unallowable. The OIG is recommending the Authority review the firms’ expenses and seek reimbursement for unallowable costs.<\/p>\n
The more than $2 million figure represents the total travel-related costs paid to the four contractors during the period reviewed, not the amount the OIG determined was unallowable.<\/p>\n
The four firms OIG tells ABC10, were KPMG LLP, the financial adviser; Nossaman LLP, the legal services contractor; AECOM-Fluor Joint Venture, the program delivery support contractor; and SYSTRA\/TYPSA Joint Venture, the track and systems design contractor.<\/p>\n
Among the expenses flagged by the OIG was a $40 Uber Black ride for a trip of less than a mile in downtown Sacramento. Another consultant billed a 25-mile Uber Comfort ride to a steakhouse in Folsom.<\/p>\n
The OIG also found a consultant flew a private aircraft from Washington, D.C., to California that the consultant calculated would be $4,182 in each direction. The OIG report says the consultant proposed to be reimbursed a self-calculated “premium” commercial rate that the Authority paid. The OIG says no private aircraft use had been been approved before the trip or that the premium fare was an appropriate amount to reimburse.<\/p>\n
The report says legal service consultants also booked flights on the day of travel, with some costing as much as $588 compared with $188 when booked three weeks in advance. The OIG says state requirements call for flights to be booked at least seven days ahead.<\/p>\n
Other rideshare expenses included trips to Planet Fitness gyms, an escape room, a nightclub, a tiki bar, a Denver sushi restaurant, a Washington, D.C. cigar lounge and private residences.<\/p>\n
The investigation also found contract managers felt unable to enforce travel rules because trips were verbally ordered by the CEO or members of the executive team.<\/p>\n
The OIG recommended the Authority strengthen travel approval and documentation requirements, establish approved consultant office locations, create a uniform travel request form and audit the four firms’ expense claims. It also recommended seeking reimbursement for unallowable expenses.<\/p>\n
The Authority agreed to implement or partially implement corrective actions between December 2026 and March 2027.<\/p>\n
High-Speed Rail Authority spokesperson Daniela Contreras said the agency takes the findings seriously.<\/p>\n
“The Authority appreciates the Office of the Inspector General’s oversight and remains committed to transparency and continuous improvements as we build the nation’s first high-speed rail system. We take these findings seriously. In response, the Authority will strengthen internal controls around consultant travel, implement more rigorous documentation and approval requirements, and recover any improper costs identified. We are also working closely with the OIG to ensure corrective action that is both accurate and fair.”<\/p>\n
The California State Transportation Agency said it expects the Authority to review and adopt the OIG’s findings and recommendations.<\/p>\n
“The California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) is working closely with the California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) to ensure accountability at every level. We expect the Authority to carefully review and adopt findings and recommendations from the Office of Inspector General. Californians deserve confidence that taxpayer dollars are being used responsibly and CalSTA will continue coordinating with the Authority to strengthen oversight and appropriate use of public funds.”<\/p>\n
The OIG clarified that the more than $2 million represents the total travel-related costs paid to the four contractors during the period reviewed \u2014 not the amount determined to be unallowable.<\/p>\n
Assembly Minority Leader Alexandra M. Macedo, R-Tulare, criticized the spending and called for improper expenses to be recovered:<\/p>\n
“California families are cutting back everywhere they can. Meanwhile, taxpayers were stuck with more than half a million dollars in improper travel expenses for private consultants, including first-class tickets, private plane travel and repeated premium Uber rides to and from a restaurant, a bar and a nightclub between 9:40 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. Taxpayers also covered international flights and trips to tiki bars, gyms, escape rooms and cigar lounges. Only in California could a project that is years late and billions over budget somehow find money for consultant rides to a cigar lounge. The High-Speed Rail Authority’s answer is to partially fix the problem sometime next year. That is not good enough.”<\/p>\n
Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, vice chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, also criticized the findings:<\/p>\n
“Quite frankly, the Inspector General’s report comes as no shock. More than $600,000 in consultant travel expenses were flagged as questionable, while California families are struggling with the high cost of living and deserve answers and accountability for how their taxpayer dollars are being spent on this project. At the same time, Sacramento Democrats continue to pour billions into the High-Speed Rail project, including $1 billion a year from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund \u2014 what I describe as a slush fund for the high-speed fail. It’s time to pull the plug and put those taxpayer dollars toward the needs of Californians today.”<\/p>\n
The OIG said it will conduct a follow-up evaluation after March 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California’s High-Speed Rail Authority paid more than $2 million in travel-related costs to four contracted consulting firms over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,78242,127229,171668,171160,183262,183261],"class_list":["post-465421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-expenses","tag-office-of-inspector-general","tag-private-aircraft","tag-the-authority","tag-travel-related","tag-unallowable-costs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}