Lawyer Artin H. Coloian, representing Shire Corp., said the incident “seems to be isolated and doesn’t affect the operation of the company.”

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Journal File

PROVIDENCE — The state police said yesterday that Shire Corp., a major bridge contractor for the state Department of Transportation, has been illegally rifling through the DOT’s computer system for confidential information that could have helped it take advantage of the agency.

The police, who searched the company’s headquarters yesterday, said in court filings that information about other contractors’ projects and DOT internal documents and communications gave Shire a big advantage in dealing with the DOT, in part by helping it incur cost overruns to the company’s advantage.

The police said that a contractor with broad access to the computer system would have “a competitive edge.” It could read change orders from other contractors approved by the state, internal DOT cost estimates, internal discussions between DOT project managers and engineers and information about future projects still in planning.

Shire, which specializes in bridges, has held more than $25 million in DOT contracts during the past several years. Some of Shire’s projects have taken far longer and cost much more than they were supposed to, while the company has collected millions of dollars by blaming the DOT for expensive delays.

The DOT’s continuing effort to build a new Barrington Bridge could end up taking more than twice as long as it was supposed to and costing twice as much as its $10.4-million bid price.

With the project far behind schedule in 2006, the state paid Shire, the contractor on the job, $5.3 million to settle the company’s claim that the DOT caused the delays. The DOT agreed to a similar, $3.1-million payment to settle Shire’s claims on the Point Street Overpass over Route 95 in Providence.

The police said that the DOT computer system was “accessed unlawfully” as recently as May 9 from an Internet address traced to Shire. During yesterday’s search of the company’s headquarters at 7 Starline Way in Cranston, they said, they seized documents, a computer and data backup tapes.

During the search, Providence lawyer Artin H. Coloian emerged from the building to represent the company. He said that “it’s too early to comment” on the situation, and that “it seems to be isolated and doesn’t affect the operation of the company.” He didn’t return a call late yesterday.

Court documents related to the search suggest that the police believe that Shire gained access to sections of the DOT computer system that were supposed to be accessible only to DOT employees by guessing DOT staff members’ “very simple” user names and passwords.

A Shire employee suspected of stealing information apparently gave himself away when, signing on to the system with his legitimate Shire user name and password, he sent messages and posed questions based on information he should not have had access to.

In their court filings, the state police identified the Shire employee as Anthony Mesiti, the company’s construction manager. He couldn’t be reached yesterday.

In one instance in April, the state police said, Mesiti sent the DOT a response to a DOT design department decision — before the decision had been sent to Shire. The DOT concluded that Mesiti was reading internal DOT documents by reaching parts of the computer system that were supposed to be off-limits.

The DOT also found that someone operating from an Internet address traced to Mesiti logged onto the system four times as Chief Civil Engineer Jay Silva — on a day in mid-April when Silva was actually on vacation. Silva, the police said, had nearly unlimited access to the system.

It was “the general opinion of DOT employees” that Shire continually hunted for reasons to incur cost overruns, the state police said. Access to certain areas of the computer system “would provide invaluable information” to assist that, the police said.

The computer system, put into operation in January 2006 and operated for the state by the Plexus Corp., is used to manage the DOT’s hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of construction projects across the state.

Contractors working on those projects are supposed to have limited access to monitor their own projects and exchange information with the DOT.

DOT engineers and other employees have much broader access, enabling them to monitor all contracts and to exchange confidential communications.

Plexus Corp. President David Giardino told the police that his company initially set the computer system up with simple user names and passwords. The passwords followed a pattern that he said could enable one user to guess the user names and passwords of others.

He said he suggested that the DOT change the passwords to something more sophisticated, but that the agency told him to keep the passwords simple.

—With reports from Edward Fitzpatrick

blandis@projo.com