PROVIDENCE — The Carcieri administration is moving forward with plans to secure new long-term janitorial contracts for the dozens of buildings formerly cleaned by TriState Enterprises and Falcon Maintenance four weeks after it abruptly fired the companies for using workers suspected of being illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, most of the temporary maintenance crews hired to clean the buildings in the 90-day interim are now reportedly on the job.

The exceptions are the University of Rhode Island campuses and the Community College of Rhode Island in Lincoln, where the state was forced to call off 15 temporary contracts just days after it announced their awards, citing “red flags” about the business’ qualifications and paperwork.

Some of those contracts have since been re-awarded to other companies, while other buildings will be cleaned by staff janitors until a long-term agreement is worked out this fall, said Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe.

“[The Department of Administration officials] are meeting to put together the specs for the requests for proposal for the long-term contracts and looking at ways to possibly consolidate for more cost savings,” Kempe said. “The processes will be under way shortly.”

The emergency procurement process that went into effect after the state fired the suspected companies “saw a significantly higher number of companies interested in the contract,” according to Kempe.

The state terminated close to 50 TriState and Falcon contracts after 31 of the companies’ employees were arrested in July by federal immigration authorities as they left work at six state courthouses.

At the time, both the court system and the attorney general’s office elected to stick with the cleaning businesses.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch is now in the process of securing an agreement with a new company to clean its offices. Spokesman Michael J. Healey said the bidding period ended last week, with bids expected to be opened within the next day or two.

The courts however continue to use TriState and Falcon with new conditions imposed.

“Basically our position is the same as it was: they are able to fulfill the terms of the contract,” court spokesman Craig N. Berke said. “We have stepped up screening of their employees, but that’s really the only thing that has changed.”

cneedham@projo.com