While an investigative audit found that the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority had broken no laws, the Legislature needs to slap some guardrails on the agency, said Oklahma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd said Wednesday.
“My team found that for the most part, OTA has acted within its legal rights,” Byrd said in releasing the first ever investigative audit of the agency. “Many of the public’s most pressing concerns about OTA can only be resolved by amending legislation.”
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond in March 2023 requested the audit of the agency, which had become a target of criticism after it announced plans for a new turnpike in the Norman area as part of a larger expansion and improvement project.
Drummond’s request did not raise any specific allegations, but pointed to a wide array of concerns, Byrd said.
She said there is no legal requirement for OTA to competitively bid contracts for professional services, but there is a legal requirement to keep costs at a minimum.
“Without competitive bidding, contractors have no incentive to lower their prices,” Byrd said. “OTA could not produce documentation showing that it had made any attempt to negotiate contract pricing downward.”
She said it looks like the 12 prime contractors OTA selected to work on the ACCESS project were allowed to “name their prices.”
OTA announced the Advancing and Connecting Communities and Economies Safely Statewide, dubbed ACCESS, in 2022. The initial cost of the 15-year project was $5 billion, a figure which has risen to $8.2 billion.
OTA has little incentive to negotiate contractor prices down or to avoid additional debt because it has the ability to raise tolls to pay off money used to expand the system, she said.
Byrd said her office also noticed potential conflicts of interest among the agency’s prime contractors.
Byrd said the ACCESS program manager also has a contract to oversee right-of-way services, which is a conflict of interest.
In addition, OTA staff said that due to the high volume of projects in the ACCESS program, they have not thoroughly reviewed all of invoices, Byrd said.
“That constitutes an unacceptable level of financial risk,” she said.
Byrd said the audit makes extensive recommendations to the OTA and lawmakers.
She said her auditors reviewed land acquisitions by the OTA and found no violations.
“When lawmakers established the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority in 1947, they granted it a blank check,” Byrd said. “Oklahoma taxpayers have been underwriting that check since the Legislature created OTA.”
OTA said in a statement that it was pleased to have independent confirmation that it complies with state law.
“OTA will review the audit in more detail, but it is committed to considering how and where we can strengthen our policies and improve documentation of our procedures and internal controls,” the statement said.
Amy Cerato, president of Pike Off OTA, said she was pleased the audit highlights some of the “blatant conflict of interest.”
The organization has been a vocal critic of OTA and opposes the agency’s plans to build a new turnpike in the Norman area.
“While the audit did not uncover criminal misconduct, the findings should not be mistaken for an agency’s clean bill of health,” Drummond said in a statement. “The audit made clear the need for increased oversight, accountability and transparency at the OTA.”
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