WSAZ Investigates | Conflict of Interest

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – For months, we’ve been hearing concerns about issues within the West Virginia Department of Transportation.

Those issues include — the now head of the agency — awarding projects with hundreds of thousands of state and federal dollars to the company where his son works.

Since then, we’ve been looking into laws and found important disclosures about conflicts of interest that appear to never have been filed.

Two bridge projects — the Glenville truss and Burnsville T-beam — both involve hundreds of thousands of state and federal dollars.

We found that both projects were awarded to Michael Baker International Inc. for consulting or engineering.

Here’s the problem: Jimmy Wriston is the secretary of West Virginia’s Department of Transportation.

At the time the projects were awarded in 2020 and 2021, Wriston was deputy secretary and deputy commissioner. WSAZ obtained documents showing during that time that Wriston also served on the committee that selects which consultant should receive projects they apply for.

In these cases, Michael Baker International was selected. According to a LinkedIn page, Wriston’s son has worked for Michael Baker for more than 15 years as a civil engineer specializing in bridge and transportation structure design, analysis, and inspection.

So, we looked into the federal code of regulations. According to Section 172.7/Section 4, which pertains to conflict of interest: “

(ii) no employee, officer or agent of the contracting agency shall participate in selection, or in the award or administration of a contract supported by federal-aid funds if a conflict of interest, real or apparent, would be involved. Such a conflict arises when there is a financial or other interest in the consultant selected for award by:

(b) any member of his or her immediate family;

(d) an organization that employs or is about to employ any of the above.

The regulation goes on to state, “A contracting agency shall promptly disclose in writing any potential conflict of interest to FHWA.”

So, we sent the Federal Highways Administration a Freedom of Information Act Request for any and all written notice(s) submitted by current WVDOH Secretary Jimmy Wriston, under his current and previous roles in the agency, regarding a potential conflict of interest (real or apparent).

Thursday morning, we received a response to our request – that reads, “A search for records located in the FHWA West Virginia Division Office has revealed no responsive records.”

We asked FHWA for an interview or comment since the lack of disclosures appears to be a violation of federal law.

We haven’t heard back yet.

Patrick McGinley is a professor at West Virginia University College of Law. WSAZ’s Sarah Sager asked his thoughts about the issue.

Sager: “The biggest issue that I’m focused on right now is this conflict of interest issue especially when it comes to federal funds. What do you think should have happened here?”

McGinley: I think a government agency like the West Virginia Department of Transportation, especially when it’s handling millions of dollars of contracts, should always err on the side of disclosure and transparency. This situation really cries out for the government agency to be transparent. Answer the questions of the media and put this to rest or if there were problems that should be disclosed.

Then, Sager reached out to the Department of Transportation, informing them WSAZ has documents showing an apparent conflict of interest —and asking for an interview with Secretary Wriston.

A spokesperson first responded with only, “Please provide the documents you are referring to.”

Sager asked again if Secretary Wriston was available to speak with us. We were told, “We will evaluate your request once we have an opportunity to review the documents you are referring to.”

Sager responded, saying “I would be happy to discuss the documents at an in-person meeting during an interview. Is he available?”

The spokesperson did not respond.

Sager also called Michael Baker’s Charleston office. No one answered, so she left a message.

She even reached out to the Governor’s Office, but a spokesperson didn’t answer. Sager followed up with a text message, asking to speak to the governor about a matter with the Division of Highways but was told they would need more details. Sager asked if they could give her a call, but she had not heard back.

She also reached back out to the Department of Transportation with specific questions in hopes of getting a comment for this story.

Some of her questions for Secretary Wriston include:

– Why did you not notify federal highways about the potential conflict of interest?

– Should you have served on the selection committee for projects involving the company that employs your son?

Sager will continue to try to reach Secretary Wriston and Gov. Jim Justice for answers.

WSAZ is also looking into several other matters brought to us concerning issues within the department.

We’ll keep you updated as soon as we get more information. Keep checking the WSAZ app for the latest.

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