The Maryland engineering companies that auditors referred to in a scathing report on the State Highway Administration last week denied any knowledge Thursday of improprieties in the way they were awarded contracts and insisted their dealings with the agency have been aboveboard.

Meanwhile, the state acknowledged there may be a slowdown in the award of highway work as it vets contracts now in the pipeline in the wake of the report released by the Department of Legislative Audits.

The audit, like most such reports, did not name individuals or companies. But it highlighted two $16 million construction management contracts that were awarded in late 2008 under circumstances that, it said, “circumvented certain established independent bid evaluation processes.”

A review of state Board of Public Works documents shows the lead companies in the partnerships that received the only two awards that matched the audit’s description were Johnson, Mirmiran Thompson of Sparks and Rummel, Klepper Kahl of Baltimore. JMT’s partner was Alpha Corp. of Dulles, Va. RKK bid as part of a joint venture with KCI Technologies of Sparks.

The lead companies, as well as KCI, are among the best-known and most influential consulting engineering firms in Maryland — well-known for their close ties to the State Highway Administration and for their employment of many former agency employees.

For the past three years, the three companies each have done roughly $8 million to $14 million in business with the state annually, the vast majority of it with the highway agency, according to state records.

Officials at the Maryland firms acknowledged having received the contracts mentioned in the audit but denied knowing anything about flaws in the way

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