CASE STUDY  BP/ARCO


Contact: Diane Ioli, BP - Arco Products Company
Director of H.R., Los Angeles Refinery
1801 East Sepulveda Blvd, Carson, CA 90749
Telephone: (310) 816-8108 Fax (310) 816-8435
Grant Amount: $1,249,025
Audit Findings: return $1,187,734
Result of Appeal $46,782 due

ARCO, which is now part of the British Petroleum family of Companies, was awarded a total of $1,249,025 in funding to retrain approximately 500 workers at its refinery located in Carson, California. All parties involved in the approval and management of the project agreed that the program was a success by achieving a performance rate over 70% and earning $902,438 in ETP funds. Two years after the term date, the project was selected randomly for a post-project audit by ETP's audit team. The ETP auditors concluded that the training records available for the audit did not represent the actual training tracking records maintained during the term of the LAR/ETP agreement and assessed the company over $1.2 million for "unearned" funds plus penalty and interest. ARCO hired Herrera & Company to represent the Los Angeles Refinery through ETP's appeal process. The final ruling on the appeal was extraordinary. ETP executive staff waived all penalty and interest plus over $900,000 in disallowed funds. The total due to ETP was less than $50,000 -- a savings of nearly $1.2 million.