By RUSTY MARKS
The State Journal
CHARLESTON, W.Va. —Officials with the West Virginia Division of Highways continued to enter into contracts with an electrical contractor even after the company’s president pleaded guilty to taking part in a highway construction kickback scheme that cost the state $1.5 million, state lawmakers were told.
The news came at a meeting of the post audits subcommittee of the state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Government and Finance. Lawmakers are holding legislative interim meetings in Charleston.
Subcommittee members were told on Sunday that DOH awarded more than $600,000 in state contracts to Bayliss & Ramey, an electrical contractor that specializes in traffic signals, highway lighting and highway messaging systems in 2017. Bayliss & Ramey President Mark R. Whitt pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in December 2016 to charges of wire fraud in connection with a kickback scheme that diverted $1.5 million to a South Carolina engineering consulting firm.
Auditors said officials with the state purchasing division incorrectly believe they could not disqualify Bayliss & Ramey from bidding on future state contracts because of the plea deal. DOH officials awarded further state contracts to Bayliss & Ramey in March and April of 2017, state auditors said, adding up to more than $600,000.
“Since July 1, 2014, the State has paid Bayliss & Ramey approximately $12.7 million,” lawmakers were told on Sunday.
Despite Whitt having stepped down as president of the company, state auditors determined he was still profiting from state contracts because he remained employed by Bayliss & Ramey.
“Although Mark Whitt must pay restitution to the State, the firm of Bayliss & Ramey does not have to make restitution of any kind,” auditors wrote in their report to the post audits subcommittee. “Bayliss and Ramey, Inc., is a closely-held corporation.
“Under these circumstances, it is clear that future profits and receipts will continue to flow to Mark Whitt’s family,” the report concluded.
State auditors recommended the company be immediately disqualified from bidding on future state contracts. After talking with officials in the purchasing division, state auditors said proceedings have begun to disbar Bayliss & Ramey from doing further business with the state.
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