Scandal in the meeting planning world: Eclipse Events
This is so not good: Subcontractor’s Story Details Post-9/11 Chaos (Washington Post). From this story, it appears that Sunnye L. Sims, an event planner for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts before starting up her own meeting planning company, Eclipse Events, in 2000, cashed in big time on a meeting planning subcontract for the U.S. government to “help set up and run screener-assessment centers in a hurry at more than 150 hotels and other facilities.” The project ended up being a $24 million windfall for Eclipse. And now the auditors are sniffing around:
- The cost of the overall contract rose in less than a year to $741 million from $104 million, and federal auditors concluded that $303 million of that spending was unsubstantiated.
Spurred by that audit, federal agents are examining the entire contract and focusing on Eclipse, according to government officials and Pearson. Investigators at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General are trying to determine how and why Eclipse obtained the work and whether the company overcharged the government or submitted false claims.
It sounds like Sims, her partner, and her lawyer aren’t talking other than to say it was all on the up and up, but this smells pretty fishy to me. I know planners are always upset that no one knows, understands, or respects what they do, but I don’t think this is the kind of press the industry needs. If anyone knows more about this one, please get in touch. If the allegations are true, this is truly unbelievable!
Many thanks to Rita for the pointer.
Update: I had forgotten about this article, which details how HelmsBriscoe got and fulfilled the contract. Funny, it doesn’t mention subbing out work to Eclipse. And check out this quote: “âWe are protecting the taxpayerâs dollars, so we are diligent about monitoring expenses,â says the TSAâs Rosenker. ‘We needed documentation for everything.’â Well, I guess not exactly “everything.”
Related Topics: Business stuff
July 28th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
You have pop-ups now? Grrrr…
Re: Ms. Sims, seems she netted $5 mill or so then decided to get involved with her church after building her big dream house.
Which brings up the question, does she tithe?
From reading the original article, it all appears murky although the people who hired her seem to have her back. And many of the hotels involved appear to be complicit in the alleged overcharging schemes.
Oddly, I didn’t get the sense that Sims’ longtime friend and business partner in Orlando earned enough to build her own mansion. Mi casa ain’t su casa?
August 5th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
I was one of the logistics coordinators involved on this program. There was waste approved by Deb Hurst from NCS Pearson. Eclipse was bare bones spending. I flew from ORD-GUM in Economy NOT first class as suggested, yet the NCS Pearson people were flying first. NCS employees were famous for not paying incidental bills and we had to check them on every expense. It was a constant battle to keep costs down because NCS always demanded more. There were hotels that jacked up prices and we battled them also. At one point in the program there was a total of a 150 sites opened at once. I was at a total of 6 sites in 5 months (I never went home) and none of my sites were over budget. My issue with this is Sunnye is being treated like a criminal. She was a lady given an opportunity and she did the best with what she was given to work with. As the dealine loomed congress pulled the funding so a last minute hiring furry happened. NCS Pearson stopped doing background checks on potiential canidates and the result is a lot of unqualified people got hired to meet the deadline. This was based on quotas and NOT qualifications. To sum up there was waste but not on the Eclipse side. If there is blame then blame the ones in charge of the program NCS Pearson.
August 6th, 2005 at 2:58 pm
First and foremost - this was a government contract. There are Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) that must be adhered to, as well as Federal Travel Regulations(FTR). Pearson, Helms Briscoe AND Eclipse Events are all at fault. There was not one flight that I took that wasn’t first class - perhaps someone should contact Red Carpet Travel and ask about THEIR knowledge of the Federal Travel Regulations. I questioned it every time my itinerarry was sent to me. The answer was always “its been approved”.
I was a Lead Coordinator at many sites - and after about 2 months on the job, I called Sunnye directly and recommended that she take me off the project and put me full time in Pearson’s office to reconcile hotel bills. Having been in Federal Contracting for 20 years, I advised her that it would be in her best interest to have someone, if not me, take on this huge task. Even over the phone, I could see Sunnye’s eyes glaze over. She’s a lovely woman, and was given a golden opportunity. Unfortunately, she was not bright enough to surround herself with qualified people with Federal contracting experience. Being driven by ambition and greed is sooooo not “christian”.
Let’s not forget about the “management team” at Eclipse. Talk about excess….
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