Highway Agency Has Continuing Contract Problems, Auditors Find

The Maryland State Highway Administration wrongfully authorized modifications and extensions to architectural and engineering contracts without the approval of the Board of Public Works, auditors have found. They also found that the highway agency is not providing proper justification for the board to approve maximum contract awards.

These findings are similar to findings in a previous report on SHA contracts.

In addition, the Office of Legislative Audits report released Tuesday said that required contractor performance benchmarks were not established for the Maryland SafeZones pilot program for highway work zone speed enforcement. Auditors say that the contractors’ speed monitoring system is not adequately collecting readable photographs as actual citation revenue is $850,000 below the contractors’ original estimate.
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