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October 5, 2007

DOT's Parker retiring in wake of probe

PROVIDENCE – Edmund T. Parker, the chief engineer at the state Department of Transportation who was placed on paid leave from his $147,456 a year job in June amid inquiries into his role in securing a $9 million contract for a relative, is retiring.

In a statement issued this morning, DOT Director Jerome Williams said Parker had “been asked to return to work’’ but chose to retire.

Williams also said: “The State Police informed RIDOT that based on their investigation, RIDOT’s Chief Engineer Edmund T. Parker, Jr. was not a target of any criminal wrongdoing.’’

State police were unavailable for immediate comment, and DOT spokeswoman Dana Nolfe did not respond to inquiries about what Williams meant since it had never been suggested that Parker had been the target of a crime.

Williams was also unavailable to comment on what he learned from state auditors, the state police or his internal investigation that prompted him to ask Parker to return. But he said: “RIDOT recognizes the 37 years of service that Ed Parker gave the State of Rhode Island.”

Parker has worked for the DOT since he was first hired as an associate civil engineer in November 1971.

He was placed on leave on June 14 amid a widening state and federal probe of the state road-building agency’s contracting practices.

Williams, a former deputy director in the Department of Administration who took over the DOT’s reins in late December, said he placed Parker, 60, on an indefinite, paid leave because it seemed prudent to do so while there is a state police investigation into "areas where he is directly involved."

Speaking at an impromptu news conference that day, Governor Carcieri confirmed that he had asked both the state police and the state’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, to investigate "potential wrongdoing’’ at the DOT.

Extra: Read a a special projo.com report on the probe at the DOT.

-- Katherine Gregg, Journal State House bureau

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 1:57 PM | Permalink

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