Trouble at Honda Jet?

Sometimes there just isn't enough room in our paper for all the news. Here's a story from the Honda Jet work site we decided to shelve pending further developments:

A minority subcontractor on the Honda Jet construction site has asked state regulators to examine the bidding and payment policies of a major contractor they accuse of engaging in unfair business practices.
In a letter dated Dec. 20, 2007, Clifford McClain, owner of North Carolina Construction Co., asked NC Reps. Beverly Earle (D-Mecklenburg) and Earlene Parmon (D-Forsyth) to investigate how well incentive-funded projects further the state’s interest in promoting minority-owned businesses. In response, both Honda and Miles-McClellan, the main contractor at the site, issued statements declaring their commitment to diversity.
“Mr. McClain’s allegations are baseless,” said Honda spokesman Jeffrey Smith.
McClain said North Carolina Construction Co. began work on the foundation at the Greensboro site, but was pulled off the job with no explanation and never received full payment. Later his company bid on work at Honda’s site in Burlington. They lost the bid, McClain said, in what he described as a rigged process headed by Miles-McClellan.
“[North Carolina Construction Company] realized that the opportunity to submit a bid as a first-tier subcontractor at the Burlington facility was nonexistent,” McClain wrote. “It appeared the general contractor and Honda had a predetermined list of firms with which they would contract as first-tier subcontractors.”
American Honda Motor Co. said in a statement it is committed to hiring minority contractors in Greensboro and Burlington.
“The overall construction management firm we hired to oversee both projects is a certified minority business enterprise (MBE),” the statement read. “Further, we engaged an MBE consultant in North Carolina to our MBE outreach activity, in the effort to increase minority participation in construction projects in North Carolina and in other states.”
In its statement, Miles-McClellan pointed to its status as a minority-owned business. The company has hired 14 certified minority business enterprises to work on the Honda facility in Greensboro.
“We acknowledge that North Carolina Construction worked on this project as a subcontractor,” the statement read, “but we are unable to discuss the particulars of this business relationship — except to say that we have thoroughly reviewed all of their claims and have found absolutely no merit in any of them.”
Parmon said she is looking into whether the dispute falls under the purview of state regulators.
“What I’m still trying to determine is if it’s a private problem between two companies or if there’s tax money involved,” she said. “If there is, then I think the state would have a responsibility to get involved to see if the policies and rules we have in place are being followed.”