Improving Transparency and Accountability in Consultant Fee Proposals

Fee proposals list the number of hours consultants intend to have personnel work on a project and their associated fees. These proposals document contract negotiations with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). Although personnel assignments documented in a signed contract should accurately reflect the consultant’s anticipated division of labor, post-project audits have routinely documented instances of negotiated hours (and costs) diverging significantly from what personnel actually logged. Usually this takes the form of low-level staff (e.g., EITs, technicians) with modest hourly cost rates working more hours than were negotiated, while more experienced and expensive personnel (e.g., project engineers, highway designers) tally fewer hours. Left unchecked, this dynamic imposes financial risks on the Cabinet and sets precedents that will reverberate through future contract negotiations. Long-tenured KYTC staff have the experience and insights required to minimize these organizational risks, but impending retirements will leave behind tremendous knowledge gaps that could weaken the agency’s ability to hold consultants accountable.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $230000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  KYSPR 27-702

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

  200 Mero Street
  Frankfort, KY  United States  40622
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Kentucky, Lexington

  Kentucky Transportation Center College of Engineering, 176 Raymond Building
  Lexington, KY  United States  40506-0281
• Principal Investigators:

  Griffith, Ryan

  Paris, Bethany

  Kreis, Doug

  Moses, David

  VanDyke, Chris

• Start Date: 20260701
• Expected Completion Date: 20280630
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Consultants; Contracting; Fees; Hours of labor; Proposals; State departments of transportation
• Identifier Terms: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Finance; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 02000581
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of Kentucky, Lexington
• Contract Numbers: KYSPR 27-702
• Files: RIP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Aug 26 2026 5:04PM