Former tollway contractor now on the outs

The Illinois tollway Friday slapped a three-year suspension on a contractor it has paid millions to for engineering and construction management work and whose executives include a former agency head.

The move comes on the heels of an Illinois Department of Transportation audit that found McDonough Associates inflated its costs and committed other accounting misdeeds.

As a result, the tollway is conducting an audit of McDonough contracts, and the agency’s chief procurement officer banned the firm from conducting any work for it until Jan. 12, 2015.

“Please be advised McDonough Associates Inc. is suspended from participating in any solicitation or contract with the tollway,” Chief Procurement Officer Matt Brown wrote Friday.

Brian McPartlin, former tollway CEO, is a McDonough vice president, and ex-IDOT engineer Feroz Nathani is the firm’s president.

McDonough officials say they have done nothing untoward.

“The tollway’s action results from the state’s action and in response to which McDonough asserts its complete opposition and its review of all legal options,” spokesman Chris Robling said.

But IDOT Chief Procurement Officer Bill Grunloh charged that McDonough “through its acts, omissions/and or misconduct ... has demonstrated it lacks the responsible business integrity and or honesty to contract with (IDOT).”

The state audit concluded that McDonough “disguised” dividends as bonuses and that it made “false or improper” records when reporting its overhead costs. The improper billings totaled about $46 million, auditors said. The state also found sloppy accounting practices such as sticky notes in expense documents.

McPartlin left the tollway in 2008 to take a job with McDonough but delayed taking the post in the midst of ethics concerns raised by Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Between 2002 and 2008, the tollway awarded $39 million in contracts to McDonough.

James McDonough is a former head of Chicago’s Streets and Sanitation Department, according to the watchdog group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. The firm has contributed thousands to Illinois politicians’ campaigns.