Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp., the company that installed the river pilings being blamed for Chicago`s Loop flood, acknowledged Thursday that it erred in certifying it was eligible to do the work despite prior bid-rigging convictions.
The certification, submitted under penalty of perjury, is required of all city contractors, said Kelly Welsh, city corporation counsel. To be eligible for city work, contractors must disclose that they have not been convicted of conspiring to fix prices in bidding in the prior three years.
A spokesman for Cook County State`s Atty. Jack O`Malley said O`Malley discussed the matter with Welsh on Wednesday, but declined further comment. If the company or its officials are to be prosecuted for perjury, the charges would have to be filed by the state`s attorney.
Douglas Reimer, an attorney for Great Lakes, conceded the certification by the company in January 1991 ”was in error.” But he said the firm three months later, in response to a request from city officials, sent a letter about its 1988 federal bid-rigging convictions.
There was no written response from the city to the April letter, but Reimer said Great Lakes assumed everything was in order because in May it was awarded the $335,640 contract to replace timber pilings at five sites in the Chicago River. ”Anybody who received (the documents) had an opportunity to understand what had taken place,” Reimer said.
In March 1988, Oak Brook-based Great Lakes, the nation`s largest dredging contractor, pleaded guilty to federal antitrust violations and agreed to pay fines of $8.3 million. The charges involved fixing prices from 1982 to 1986 on dredging contracts with the Army Corps of Engineers for ports across the country.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Welsh said that although three years had passed after the plea agreement at the time the contract was awarded, the required time had not elapsed when the certification was signed. Welsh also said it was 1989, a year after the original plea, before some of the individual guilty pleas were formally entered.
In addition, it was learned by the city just this week that in March 1989, Great Lakes entered into civil consent decrees in Florida stemming from similar charges, and paid $3.7 million in fines and damages. There was no information about the Florida charges in Great Lakes` letter to the city.
Reimer said the Florida charges were settled without admitting or denying guilt, and thus would not have disqualified Great Lakes for the city contract. The certification refers to convictions of or admissions of guilt to bid rigging.
Nevertheless, Ald. Ed Burke (14th) said the Florida settlement should have been disclosed. The ”clear” intent of the City Council ”was to bar people from doing business with the city who had committed or undertaken acts of bid rigging or collusion, even though that might not have led to a conviction or a finding of guilty in a civil action,” Burke said.