Aug 8, 2007 11:03 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Money Behind Lack Of Big Dig Oversight
by Joe Bergantino
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
On a project this big, this expensive, with so many lives at stake, why wasn't there more oversight?
The I-Team found part of the answer comes back to the old adage, "follow the money."
"Bechtel, the legislative leadership and the governor's office would not allow it," said Christy Mihos.
Mihos, a long-time Big Dig critic, is talking about independent oversight, someting the project, with all its problems, never had.
The politically-connected company Bechtel was supposed to be managing the multi-billion dollar boondoggle. But critics charged years ago, Bechtel was not doing its job.
Who should have been brought in?
"Someone that never had anything to do with Bechtel. MassHighway or the Turnpike Authority. Someone who could come in, sign on the dotted line that they did an independent inspection and found that to be safe," said Mihos.
Why didn't that happen here?
One possible reason is a list of contributions from just six Big Dig contractors to the most powerful state and federal politicans in Massachusetts.
One hundred twenty four thousand dollars from 2002-2006.
"That buys a lot on Beacon Hill, whether you're a legislative transportatoin chairman, speaker or senate president or you're whomever. It's basically, money has corrupted the system like you've never seen before," said Mihos.
Keep in mind, the I-Team analysis only covered five recent years.
Over the life of the Big Dig project, hundreds of thousands of dollars more have passed from contractors into the pockets of politicians, who did little or nothing to insure this project was safe, on time and on budget.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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