The money came pouring into The Access Group of Jasper, nearly $7 million paid by Alabama's two-year colleges after Roy Johnson took over as chancellor of the postsecondary system in 2002.

The company doubled its annual revenue from the state's community colleges to nearly $1.2 million and nearly doubled its client list, transforming a small software provider into a multimillion-dollar business. Much of the two-year college business came without Access Group's having to bid for the work.

The growth came in part from Johnson's big ideas and the new software lines the company created to make them happen, records show.

When Johnson wanted software to manage the system's adult-education program, Access Group got the contract, even though the company had to design the new product. The system paid the company to design it and then agreed to pay $610,000 to use it, records show.

When Johnson wanted software to manage the system's GED testing program, the contract went to Access Group. Again, the company had to design the software, and the system paid to do it. Johnson approved paying $200,000 to use the product.

When Johnson wanted a new company grading GED tests, Access Group got that $40,000 contract, too, even though it had not previously offered test-grading services.

Access Group didn't compete with others for the new software contracts or for the other services. Johnson and other system officials argued that Access Group was the only company capable of handling the job, so they didn't seek competitive bids.

With Access Group's business booming, the company hired more staff - Johnson's daughter; the wife of a powerful legislator; the wife of a two-year college president; the brother of another college president.

Now, Access Group finds itself in the middle of a criminal investigation of Alabama's twoyear system; its founder has been identified as a federal witness; and the company is implicated in a contract scheme used to steal state money.

Efforts in recent weeks to reach Access Group executives have failed.

Interim Chancellor Thomas Corts said last week that he has not reviewed the no-bid contracts approved by Johnson for GED and adult-education services. The new disclosures raise more questions about the company's dealings with the system, Corts said.

The big problem, Corts and others said, is that most of the state's two-year colleges have spent millions on computers and software from Access Group that could become useless if the company's future is jeopardized by the federal criminal investigation. Corts said he is looking for options in software and computer services.

"We're trying to put together a summit of our top technology people, looking at converting to a more standard provider," Corts said.

Corts recently discovered another software contract negotiated by Johnson. The state school board in February approved spending $450,000 at Johnson's request for instructional software that Johnson said did not have to be competitively bid because no other company produced it.

Corts told the board last week the software actually costs $862,500 and that similar products are available from competing vendors. Board members on Thursday stripped Johnson of his paid leave after learning he misled them about that contract.

Corts said he's not sure if the software business with Access Group raises similar concerns, but it's something he will look into.

Y2K contract the first

Access first surfaced publicly after then-Gov. Don Siegelman gave the company a $1.3 million contract in 1999 to monitor Y2K issues for the state. Winston Hayes, the company's founder, gave Siegelman $12,000 in campaign contributions for his 1998 race for governor, pitched in $5,000 to help cover Siegelman's 1999 inaugural expenses and, a few months later, gave $10,000 to Siegelman's lottery campaign, records show.

Access Group owes the bulk of its success to Alabama's twoyear colleges. Hayes created the company in 1994 and notes on the company's Web site that Bevill State Community College at Sumiton was the first customer to buy its management software. Today, 22 of the 28 clients listed on the Web site are Alabama two-year colleges. The company in the past year signed up its first out-of-state clients.

Access Group has made most of its money from software designed to manage school finances and student information for the state's two-year colleges. Corts said some college presidents have complained they had to buy the software at Johnson's urging, and they believe they paid too much.

The company's business really picked up after Johnson became chancellor in 2002, in part from the new software line the system paid the company to create. Bevill State paid the company and then billed the two-year college system for the cost of handling GED grading and for software to manage GED records and Adult Education programs, college finance records show.

By allowing Bevill rather than the Department of Postsecondary Education in Montgomery to handle the systemwide contracts, the agreements did not have to go before the Legislature's contract-review committee, system officials have said.

Bevill State's response

Bevill State President Harold Wade, whose brother James Wade was hired by Access Group in 2004, has declined requests for interviews. Harold Wade issued a written statement when asked about the Access Group contracts. He said he hired the company after Johnson directed Bevill State to find someone to develop GED and adult-education software in 2003.

"We entered into an agreement with the Department of Postsecondary Education, and the agreement was approved as proper and legal by the department attorney," Wade's statement said. "Since this was a Department of Postsecondary Education initiative, any further questions should be directed to the department."

Bob Romine, the department's head of adult education who approved Bevill's agreements when Johnson was chancellor, initially referred all questions about the contracts back to Bevill. Romine declined to be interviewed, but later agreed to answer questions about the Access Group work through department spokesman Andre Taylor.

Romine and others have said Johnson ultimately decided how to handle the Access contracts, Taylor said. "Essentially, that was a decision made by the chancellor."

Romine has said the two-year college system didn't have "the skill set in-house" to oversee the software contracts, while Bevill State did, Taylor said.

System officials have stopped using Access Group to grade the GED essays, Taylor said. "We're moving toward bringing it all inhouse," he said.

Relatives paid

In 2004, the company hired Johnson's daughter, Malinda Morgan, and Connie Branch, the wife of Faulkner State Community College President Gary Branch, to grade the essays. The Branches divorced last December.

Access Group also gave work to Johna Lindsey, the wife of House Education Budget Committee Chairman Richard Lindsey. The Democratic lawmaker from Centre said his wife received $2,000 a month from the company to proofread company materials at home.

Access Group was paid for other services, records show. In one case, Northwest Shoals Community College paid the company $4,300 for "labor relations." The school hired Access Group months after Johnson became chancellor in 2002, and Access Group used the money to pay lobbyist and longtime Johnson friend Jimmie Clements as a consultant, records show.

In another case, prosecutors allege that Access Group was part of a criminal scheme that entailed using bogus contracts to send money to a system official. A plea agreement filed this month in U.S. District Court accuses Access Group officials of helping to arrange bogus contracts at the Alabama Fire College in Tuscaloosa, agreeing to pay a former Fire College official with money the company received on consulting contracts.

Prosecutors said Access Group never performed any work under its contract with the Fire College. And Robert Nix, the former Fire College official who entered the guilty plea, admitted he didn't do any work for the $92,000 Access Group paid him.

After Roy Johnson became chancellor of the two-year college system in 2002, The Access Group LLC of Jasper received nearly $7 million in contracts. Part of that total came from more than $1.1 million in new, no-bid software and service contracts.

The system paid Access Group $72,000 to design the software, and the company then charged the system more than $1 million to use it. Johnson told Bevill State Community College officials to handle the contracts for the system and he supplied system money to pay the costs, records show.

September 2003: Johnson signed an agreement with Bevill, authorizing the college to handle software purchases for the system. Bevill gave Access Group a $32,000 contract to design an Internet-based adult education reporting program for the college system.

January 2004: Bevill gave Access Group a $20,000 contract to work on the system's "web-based adult education information."

February 2004: Bevill signed a $610,000 contract with Access Group to use adult education software.

April 2004: Bevill gave Access Group a $20,000 contract to develop an Internet-based program to manage information from the GED testing program for those seeking a high-school diploma equivalent.

August 2004: Bevill signed a $200,000 contract with Access Group for Web-based GED testing and administration services.

October 2004: Bevill signed a $40,000 contract with Access Group to grade GED essays for the system. Bevill signed a $226,000 contract with Access Group for additional work on the system's adult education software.