Longtime contractor under scrutiny after audit

Editor’s note: This article appeared in the Daily Herald April 19, 2012.

Illinois tollway directors approved more than $165 million in contracts to construction and engineering firms related to a $12 billion road building program at a Wednesday finance committee meeting.

But one company that’s performed millions of dollars of work for both the tollway and Illinois Department of Transportation was absent from the list of contractors — temporarily disqualified following a state audit.

IDOT issued an interim suspension to McDonough Associates after an investigation indicated financial irregularities. The well-known firm “through its acts, omissions/and or misconduct ... has demonstrated it lacks the responsible business integrity and or honesty to contract with the department,” agency Chief Procurement Officer Bill Grunloh wrote to McDonough President Feroz Nathani.

A McDonough official who did not want to be identified said a hearing on the issue was scheduled for next week and “it will all be cleared up then.”

Nathani is a former IDOT engineer, and the tollway’s former CEO Brian McPartlin is an executive at McDonough.

Among the findings in the audit were that the firm: “disguised” dividends as bonuses and that it made “false or improper” records of costs when reporting overhead.

The tollway is ramping up a massive public works program that includes extending the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway east, building an interchange at I-57 and the Tri-State (I-294), and widening the Jane Addams Tollway (I-90).

Officials approved a $66.8 million agreement with CH2M HILL Inc. to manage engineering of the Elgin-O’Hare extension and a western bypass around the airport connecting to I-90 at the north end and I-294 at the south end. About $100 million in contracts for the Jane Addams project were also adopted.

The finance committee’s actions will go to a final vote at a full board meeting April 26.