The League was recently informed by the Michigan Department of Transportation that the Federal Highway Administration has requested that Michigan implement a new Conflict of Interest policy for local road agencies that use engineering consultants on federal-aid road projects. The FHWA is apparently concerned that when a local road agency uses the same consultant for both the design and construction phases of a project, that the potential for fraud and abuse is too great to ignore...even though they can cite no problem examples in Michigan. The feds feel that this is even more pronounced in cases where the consultant serves as the City Engineer. A copy of the letter from FHWA explaining their concerns is attached.
What this proposed change fails to acknowledge is that mandating separate consultants for each phase of a project will inherently raise the cost of the project for communities, increase inefficiency and delay project completion, and reduce accountability when correcting issues as a project evolves. The League has been soliciting feedback from member communities on this proposal and has expressed these concerns to the department and to FHWA. We have requested a meeting with MDOT staff to review the fed request and are awaiting the scheduling of that meeting.
This is an issue of great importance to many communities. If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts on the proposal, please give me a call or send me an email. We will be sharing the various reactions from communities with MDOT when we sit down with them.
MDOTConflictofInterestPolicyforLA's.pdf (112.78 kb)
Chris Hackbarth handles transportation issues for the Michigan Municipal League. Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.
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