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City says contractor submitted forged bond paperwork for Brownsville construction project

Workers who built the Southmost Hike and Bike Trail in Brownsville claim they haven’t been paid.

Jorge Contla said he worked on the hike and bike trail project as a subcontractor for ARRCO General Construction Group. The city of Brownsville, though, provided documents to CBS 4 News showing Contla presented himself as a representative of ARRCO.

Contla and other workers claim ARRCO hasn’t paid them in months. ARRCO didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday.

“The city says ‘Yes, you are going to get paid’ but we haven’t seen any results,” Contla said.

When ARRCO submitted a bid for the project, the company included standard paperwork for what’s called a performance bond.

A performance bond is basically an insurance contract for the construction project. If ARRCO couldn’t complete the job, the insurance company would hire a new contractor to complete the work.

ARRCO submitted records to the city showing a performance bond from a company called Texas Indemnity Contractor.

CBS 4 News called the Texas Department of Insurance, which couldn’t find any record of a company called Texas Indemnity Contractor.

In response to questions from CBS 4 News, the city of Brownsville released a statement about ARRCO and Contla:

The city provided CBS 4 News a business card that identifies Contla as a project manager for ARRCO, a photo showing Contla wearing an ARRCO hard hat, and a sign-in sheet where Contla listed himself as a representative of ARRCO.

Contla said he worked as a subcontractor for ARRCO; he flatly denied ever working directly for ARRCO.

To document his claim, Contla provided a subcontractor agreement between a company called Ziur Corporation and ARRCO.

Brownsville referred the matter to the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office for investigation.

http://valleycentral.com/news/local/city-contractor-submitted-forged-bond-for-brownsville-construction-project