A study meant to upgrade building inspection in the city of Pittsburgh hasn't been fully implemented, and the state agency that funded the review is threatening to yank a $300,000 grant if progress isn't made, pronto.

That was the word from the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which spent $75,000 at the city's request to evaluate the Bureau of Building Inspection and pledged to help pay the costs of implementation. The 42-page study, though, has been executed in slow motion, ICA leaders said yesterday.

"We're not seeing the implementation we'd like to see," said ICA board Chair Barbara McNees. If the bureau doesn't pick up the pace, the ICA will yank the $300,000 it pledged to help improve training.

"I would hate to do that," she said, adding that her state-appointed board wants to see a boost in the number of inspections, among other improvements.

Building Inspection Chief Sergei Matveiev called the criticisms "somewhat unfair. We have made a tremendous amount of progress toward following the ICAs's recommendations," he said, citing around a dozen new hires, training and certification advances, new hand-held computers for all code inspectors and the pending purchase of 48 Ford Focus cars so inspectors don't rely on personal cars.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who appointed Mr. Matveiev on the same day that he released the study, took no issue with the ICA's critique. "It's time to get off the dime and get that study implemented, and we're going to be sitting down and talking about what we need to do to make sure that happens."

The state-appointed ICA hired the TriData Division of System Planning Corp. to recommend changes in the bureau. TriData had already done the same for the fire and Emergency Medical Services bureaus.

The report was released in October, but ICA officials said its findings were known to city officials in July. It identified 18 core problems and made recommendations.

"We're not going to wait and wait and wait," said ICA Executive Director Henry Sciortino, adding that improvements in city bureaus and departments "roll up into the bigger picture" of a fiscally sound city.

A key recommendation, Mr. Sciortino said, is basing inspectors in the neighborhoods, rather than Downtown. The study said the bureau should "be decentralized into several districts" and inspectors should work out of police and fire stations.

Mr. Sciortino said the ICA doesn't "want to tell them how to operate. But we want those inspectors out in the zones at times when they're fortifying the activity of the police officers."

For instance, he said, building inspectors could join police officers on nuisance bar calls, or help them enforce the disruptive property ordinance, which allows the city to charge fees to the owners of properties that demand frequent police, fire and building inspection attention.

Two building inspectors now have office hours at the Zone 5 police station in Highland Park two mornings a week. The bureau plans to do the same in the Zone 3 station, in Allentown, shortly, but a complete shift out of Downtown isn't practical, said Mr. Matveiev.

The ICA wants the inspectors to start doing the asbestos inspections needed prior to demolishing a building, saving $1,600 per structure.

Mr. Matveiev said his demolition inspectors just got their asbestos inspection licenses, but don't have time to do the examinations. "We will eventually need to up the staff," he said.

Mr. Matveiev vowed to satisfy the ICA so he doesn't lose the $300,000. "I don't plan on failing on this," he said.