MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – City police are investigating a builder’s claim that a city official ordered some consultants to steal and alter documents about renovations to the Manchester schools.
Gilbane Building Co. is in a $10 million legal battle with the city over its $105 million contract to renovate and expand most of the schools. Gilbane says the city has withheld payment and demanded work not covered in the contract. The two sides are scheduled to mediate in March.
Now the company says a city official ordered two consultants overseeing the construction to steal documents about the extra work from a Gilbane construction trailer last week, according to a police report obtained by the New Hampshire Union Leader.
Gilbane officials said they recovered the documents from consulting firm DMJM Harris. Company spokesman Wes Cotter said the documents were requisition forms guaranteeing the city would pay “tens of thousands” of dollars for work done by Gilbane subcontractors, but when the documents were returned all the figures had been altered to read $0.
“There’s no doubt about what happened,” Cotter said.
Officials at DMJM Harris Inc. referred questions to City Hall, where the city attorney said there was no truth to the accusations.
“The city adamantly denies that it instructed a DMJM employee to enter the Gilbane trainler and take a document and then alter that document,” said city attorney Thomas Pappas.
The city hired DMJM Harris in 2003 to monitor Gilbane. The two companies work out of trailers located next to each other on South Jewett Street.
According to the police report, Gilbane project manager Rene Pincince said he suspected the papers were taken Nov. 13 or Nov. 14, when the trailer was unoccupied and unlocked.
When DMJM Harris officials were confronted, they said one of their inspectors, Bruce Bagwell, had taken the documents and that another inspector, Kevin Gregoire, had altered them, the police report said.
Both men said they were following orders, according to the report. “Bruce and Kevin told Gilbane that they were told to do so by a city employee who was their supervisor,” police wrote.
Cotter said the city’s chief facilities manager, Tim Clougherty, was the supervisor accused of ordering the burglary. Clougherty has worked for the city six years.
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