The Fix Is In

The audit, dated March 2000, also said that one vendor had "bundled" equipment sold to the university for four construction projects. Bundling is the practice of requiring a buyer to purchase a variety of goods from the same supplier on an all-or-none basis. In each of the four jobs, the bundling included a proprietary airflow control valve that was specifically required by the construction contract. Auditors concluded that while bundling opens the door to the university being overcharged, that apparently hadn't happened in the four projects examined, since all were completed within budget. The auditors remarked, however, that they were not able to determine whether or not the price paid for the bundled equipment was competitive.

After Karamanos sued, UCSF restored his contract to supply HVAC equipment for a multimillion-dollar animal experimentation lab, and he was given a piece of the UC Davis jobs, too. That success emboldened him to convert his breach of contract lawsuit into a whistle-blower suit, which could entitle him to share in millions of dollars in damages.

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"Proprietary-specification writing is a new, complex area of construction fraud," says Matt Dorsey, spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera. "Learning about it is the cutting edge of corruption investigations."

The learning curve for Campbell and Karamanos, of course, is significantly less steep than for a layperson. Each has spent years mastering his or her trade; for them, a proprietary spec almost leaps off the page of a construction document. Law enforcers are faced with having to master the incredibly arcane -- and mind-numbingly dull -- language and mathematical formulas used in specs before they can bring civil or criminal charges to bear, when relevant. There is nothing like having a whistle-blower or two on hand to spot the improprieties masquerading as innocent specifications.

Lawyers working for City Attorney Herrera have been getting up to speed, though. Sources say Herrera is nearly ready to sue several construction contractors in federal court, alleging that they improperly used proprietary specs on projects including SFO and the de Young Museum. The lawsuits could be filed soon.