HARRISBURG, PA (March 13, 2013) — Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Chief Executive Officer Mark P. Compton today made the below statement in response to Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane’s news conference regarding a state grand jury probe of the Turnpike Commission:
We understand how important it is to maintain the public’s trust. And certainly, we’re troubled by today’s news from Attorney General Kane’s office.
If charges against former Turnpike employees are indeed proven, we certainly cannot — and will not — defend that. But I can say that these actions definitely don’t represent the hard-working men and women who keep our road open and safe for customers. In the time that I’ve been here, the Turnpike that I have experienced firsthand is quite different than the one that I’ve heard about in media reports.
It’s important to point out that we have taken steps in the past two years to reform and modernize Turnpike operations:
- We hired a Chief Compliance Officer, who is a former FBI agent, to make sure employee actions continue to be beyond reproach; and we provided the resources needed to do the job.
- We adopted, as policy, a more rigorous, transparent process for awarding professional-services contracts to ensure that only the most-qualified firms are considered and awarded.
- Thanks to a recently formed diversity and inclusion department, we are attracting a more diverse pool of contractors and service providers to bid on our projects.
Without doubt, the commission remains committed to continuing our efforts to improve the accountability and operations of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
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