PARIS ACHEN - Left to right, Oregon Transportation Commission Commissioners Paul Brown, Alando Simpson, Tammy Baney and David Lohman listen to presentation on the state highway fund revenue forecast Jan. 19, 2017 at the state Transportation Building in Salem.

SALEM — The Oregon Transportation Commission on Thursday nixed a scheduled briefing on draft findings of a management audit of the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The audit is intended to ensure ODOT is prepared to effectively manage a potential transportation package that legislators could approve later this year.

That legislation — one of Gov. Kate Brown’s priorities as governor — could hike gas taxes and fees on drivers and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to ODOT.

The state in September awarded a nearly $1 million contract to New York-based McKinsey & Company to conduct the long-awaited review.

The briefing on draft findings had been added to the commission’s Jan. 19 meeting agenda after the EO Media Group/Pamplin Media Group Capital Bureau earlier this month requested a copy of the 60-page document.

Bret West, an administrator with the Department of Administrative Services who oversees the McKinsey’s contract, received the draft findings Dec. 23, said Matt Shelby, a DAS spokesman. However, the document contained McKinsey’s trade secrets, including strategies the firm uses to conduct management reviews. Trade secrets are exempt from disclosure under Oregon public records law and had to be redacted, Shelby said.

West said after receiving the draft findings he asked McKinsey to expand on two areas in the review related to conflicts of interest and the agency’s decision-making authority.

The Capital Bureau was first to report that the management review’s scope of work did not address how much weight ODOT employees give conflicts of interest in the process choosing contractors.

The redactions and the additional information West requested were not yet complete Thursday, Jan. 19, West said. The preliminary findings are scheduled to be wrapped up by Feb. 1, he said.

Staff members at the Department of Administrative Services then will develop McKinsey’s findings and list of options into a set of recommendations, West said. The final report is set to be complete Feb. 28, he said.

“The most important thing I would like to say is DAS has really taken a hands-off approach to the findings themselves,” said West, who is married to an ODOT employee. “We think McKinsey and their work is high quality, and we don’t want any perception that DAS has influenced the findings.”

By Paris Achen

Portland Tribune Capital Bureau Reporter

503-385-4899

email: pachen@portlandtribune.com

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