Ohio defends $2 million award

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s highway agency on Thursday defended its plan to award up to $1 million apiece to two bidders that submit designs for a major new bridge in Cleveland but don’t win the contract, payments questioned by a government watchdog.

The payments will increase competition and result in high-quality design proposals, said Transportation Director Jolene Molitoris, responding to an April report by Inspector General Thomas Charles that questioned whether the plan was legal, justified and fiscally prudent. The highway agency had 60 days to respond.

It would mark the first time that Ohio has offered such incentives on this type of large-scale project. Other states, including Florida and Minnesota, have made similar payments. Molitoris said her agency has authority to make the payments. Charles said state law doesn’t explicitly grant it, though it doesn’t prohibit it, either.

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