State's bidding system muddles who's the boss.

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When Raleigh lawyer Robert Zaytoun was drawn into the squabble over the construction of the State Bureau of Investigation's lab in 1997, the project was already overdue and overbudget. His client, Kvaerner ASA, a Norwegian conglomerate, had stumbled into the mess when it bought Tampa-based Trafalgar House Construction Inc., the general contractor. In mid-1994, Trafalgar had signed on for what was supposed to be a two-year job. By the time Zaytoun got involved, the price tag for the lab, which wouldn't be finished until January 1998, had risen to $12.3 million -- a third more than the original bid.

The matter ended up in court. Trafalgar, which has changed its name to Kvaerner Construction Inc., sued the state last year in Superior Court. The state counter-sued. And they've dragged the architect into the litigation. "Everyone was pointing fingers at each other," Zaytoun says, shaking his head. "When I learned how the state construction process worked, I understood why."

State law requires four separate bids -- one each for the general, electrical, plumbing and heating-ventilation-and-air-conditioning (HVAC) contracts -- on projects that cost more than $500,000. Agencies have the option of taking joint bids -- that is, bids from general contractors who hire and pay their own subcontractors -- but the winner must be the low bid, whether it's joint or, as is more often the case, the separate ones added together.

Separate contracts, critics contend, mean none of the contractors has enough authority to make sure the job gets done on time and within budget. They are all free agents, looking out for themselves. Each of the winning bidders is considered a "prime" contractor for its part of the project, hence the common name for the state system: multiprime contracting.

"It's like a football team, and the state is the coach," says Scott Cutler, vice president of marketing at Raleigh-based Clancy & Theys Construction Co. "He sends in a play, but he has to send it in to four different quarterbacks, and they have to agree on it. Is it a surprise to anyone if there are some delay-of-game penalties?"

State Treasurer Harlan Boyles thinks multiprime contracting "costs us millions." Why? "To the extent that you don't clothe the general contractor with controls over subcontractors, you can't control quality," which translates to higher costs.

During construction, it can mean delays and, afterward, repairs to shoddy work. In a conventional contract, the...