PITTSBURGH -- Allegheny County's controller said the David L. Lawrence Convention Center was built with lax oversight that led to cost overruns and quality control problems -- including a beam collapse that killed an ironworker.

Controller Mark Patrick Flaherty said the city-county Sports and Exhibition Authority, which runs the convention center, must learn from those mistakes as it breaks ground Thursday on the Pittsburgh Penguins' $290 million hockey arena.

"We specifically want to make sure they have a realistic timeline, a realistic budget, and that the construction manager is contracted on an at-risk basis," Flaherty said.

In an audit released Wednesday, Flaherty said cost and quality problems at the convention center would have been reduced if the SEA had used an at-risk construction manager, which is liable for cost overruns. Instead, an in-house manager was used.

"The convention center was built on an agency basis, which gave no risk to the construction manager and contractors, and the SEA bore all the risk," Flaherty said.

The center's original budget was $213 million, but the final tab was $298 million, according to Flaherty's audit.

"The underfunded budget and the unrealistic timelines -- those were really two factors that led to a lot of the engineering and construction mishaps," he said.

SEA officials said that they're using an at-risk manager for the new arena, and that they've studied what went wrong at the convention center.

"As we began planning to build our new arena, we undertook just such a lessons-learned review and have developed this project accordingly," executive director Mary Conturo said in a statement.

Days before the convention center was set to hold its first event, an accident killed one construction worker and injured another in February 2002.

One year later, Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons found convention center workers downing up to four beers and a shot of whiskey at lunch.

In February 2007, the loading dock collapsed, forcing the convention center to shut down for more than a month.

County Chief Executive Dan Onorato does not dispute Flaherty's audit but said the SEA is not solely to blame.

"There was a major problem at that convention center -- a major problem -- and somebody's got to be held accountable, and these companies will be held accountable," Onorato said, adding that the contractors have so far covered the costs of fixing the collapse.

Despite all of the problems, Flaherty said the convention center is safe and is something to be proud of.