Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto recently signed an executive order to fight construction fraud, promote worker safety, and protect city tax revenue.
The city recently experienced incidents involving unreported cash payments by subcontractors on construction projects. The Construction Fraud Executive Order cracks down on construction companies that commit tax, insurance, and workers’ compensation fraud.
It also aims to stop companies from paying workers in cash to avoid taxes. These practices allow corrupt firms to outbid honest ones and contribute to lost wages, decreased tax revenue, and unsafe and hazardous work sites, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.
The city’s department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections, and its Finance Department, will form a committee with several local building trade groups to examine city code and to create more accountable and transparent construction development processes. The executive order requires that contractors or developers receiving city subsidies must report all workers on the project site.
Related Stories
| Apr 10, 2013
DOD should continue LEED-Silver or equivalent rating standard, says NRC
The Department of Defense should continue to require that its new buildings or major renovations to facilities be designed to achieve a LEED-Silver or equivalent rating, says a new report from the National Research Council.
| Apr 10, 2013
EPA proposes emissions rules affecting light construction vehicles
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed air-pollution standards that it says will reduce the amount of sulfur in U.S. gasoline by two-thirds and impose fleet-wide pollution limits on new vehicles.
| Apr 10, 2013
New skyscraper designs raising the bar on green standards
Though most new skyscraper designs have a traditional look, they are including a wider array of sustainable elements to use energy and water more efficiently and improve human health.
| Apr 5, 2013
Lack of national standards on design of bioterror labs creates higher risk for accidents, panel says
U.S. labs that conduct research on bioterror germs such as anthrax are at risk for accidents because they do not have uniform design and operation standards, according to a Congressional investigative group.
| Apr 5, 2013
Builders Hardware Manuf. Assn. revises three standards for hinges, locks, and latches
The Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA) released three new revisions to the ANSI/BHMA standardsfor hinges, interconnected locks, and sliding and folding hardware.
| Apr 5, 2013
New items to ASHRAE/IES energy standard open for public comment
The 2013 version of the ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2010, Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is scheduled for publication later this year, and 26 proposed addenda are open for public comment.
| Apr 5, 2013
No evidence that mandatory building energy labeling improves efficiency, study says
The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and the Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB) released a report, “An Economic Perspective on Building Labeling Policies,” that questions the efficacy of mandatory building energy labeling.
| Mar 27, 2013
Practical application of Legionella prevention standards the focus of ASHRAE project
An American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers committee drafting tough new standards to prevent the waterborne bacteria Legionella is focused on how to apply the standards in the real world.
| Mar 27, 2013
Open discussion of regulations on tap at AGC’s 2013 Federal Contractors Conference
The AGC Federal Contractors Conference provides a venue for contractors and federal agency personnel to meet in a collaborative forum to review federal construction contracting issues from around the United States.
| Mar 27, 2013
New BACnet standard offers significant improvements to alarm handling
Changes to the newly published BACnet standard from ASHRAE will encourage smart building automation controls systems including alarms.
