BALTIMORE (AP) - Ethics concerns have prompted Maryland officials to delay voting on a $68.5 million transportation contract.
The Department of Transportation delayed the vote Wednesday amid questions about the ties between the winning bidder and the state’s transportation secretary, Pete K. Rahn, news outlets reported. The contract would have paid a consortium of companies to oversee part of Gov. Larry Hogan’s $7.6 billion highway expansion plan to relieve traffic congestion in the Baltimore-Washington corridor.
The transportation secretary was employed by consortium leader HNTB Corp. just before he joined Hogan’s administration. Rahn’s personal connection to the firm prompted questions by the state’s selection panel about how the firm was picked and whether there was enough transparency.
Rahn told The Daily Record in an interview published Monday that an opinion from the Maryland State Ethics Commission issued two weeks ago cleared his involvement. He said his dinner with an HNTB executive was a get-together with a friend that he paid for himself. He also said he doesn’t currently have stock in or financial ties to the company.
That interview was the first time he had disclosed he previously did own stock in the company. The Daily Record reported Wednesday that Rahn will amend his state financial disclosure filings after failing to disclose the ownership and later sale of HNTB stock.
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Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com
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