BOSTON -- Gov. Deval Patrick is taking a scornful tone regarding the hiring of companies that have cheated taxpayers in Massachusetts. From Beacon Hill to his monthly radio show, the governor has called for transportation reform and wants public agencies to keep their distance from companies that hurt the state.

"Now is the time to reform and renew our system from top to bottom," Patrick said. "The days of avoiding truth and consequences must end and end now."

But Team 5 Investigates has discovered Patrick's words are much different from his administration's actions. In the coming months, millions of tax dollars will pay for repairs to area roads and bridges by a company whose former top executives are well-known for cheating taxpayers.

"Isn't it a tradition in Massachusetts to make a mess of public works projects?" said Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation. "Aren't we almost obligated to our fans to have corruption tied in?"

In this case, the ties go all the way to prison. Team 5 learned Mass Highway has awarded Hanover, Mass.-based contractor P.A. Landers $18,604,462 worth of new work on the South Shore and Cape since the governor took office. More than $215,00 was paid to them for sanding and plowing roads.

It's a hefty workload, say critics, especially when its founder, Preston Landers, is housed in federal prison in Pennsylvania and its former vice president, Gregory Keelan, is locked up in New York. Two years ago, both men were convicted of defrauding the state, the MBTA and several municipalities. The company was ordered to pay almost $4 million in fines and was excluded from doing work for the federal government for two and a half years.

"That is a powerful message when you start looking at individuals going to jail as a result of the criminal conduct," said U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, who prosecuted P.A. Landers.

But since the convictions, the suspension has been lifted. The company reorganized under new management, it's under government monitoring and the state has given Landers the green light to plow ahead with more work.

"Why give this company a second chance?" asked Team 5 reporter Sean Kelly. Frank Tramontozzi from Mass Highway said, "In the big picture there are hundreds of people employed there who are honest, hardworking, taxpaying Massachusetts residents that should not be penalized by the actions of a couple people running the company."

"Was there any hesitation to get back into business with P.A. Landers?" Kelly asked. "No, they were suspended." Tramontozzi said.

Critics question whether this is true transportation reform. "We've instituted many transportation reform measures at Mass Highway," Tramontozzi said. "We know how things were in the past and this is how things are moving in the future." "We're not going to have real reform in this state," said Anderson.

"We're going to continue to elect people who tell us they'll reform, then don't do it."

According to critics that includes State Sen. Steven Baddour, who chairs the Joint Committee on Transportation. He declined Team 5's request for an interview. According to his aide, the senator has friends who work for P.A. Landers and even though he thinks this is "a little shady for the state to be doing business with them, he'd rather not comment because of that conflict." Instead, Baddour's office suggested Team 5 talk to Sen. Marc Pacheco, who heads the Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee.

"Let me be clear," Pacheco said. "I am for debarring permanently those companies that have intentionally defrauded the taxpayer, period. We shouldn't do business with them again. "

But Pacheco has not asked anyone to put the brakes on doing business with P.A. Landers. The senator said he's not sure the state has any legal ground to stand on although he says he's going to look into it.

"We are involved from an oversight perspective to try and put in place up front rules and regulations that can be given to the executive branch so that they can try to limit the possibility of these things happening," Pacheco said.

Gov. Patrick already has the power to do that. He can bar companies from doing business with the state. So can the secretary of transportation. But neither has debarred any companies which critics say is not exactly surprising since the secretary of transportation also played a big role in the state's biggest transportation boondoggle.

"Very little of what Massachusetts does is right," Anderson said. "Most of what we do is wrong and so this simply carries on that tradition."

The secretary of transportation declined Team 5's request for an on-camera interview. So did the new president of P.A. Landers. But during a phone interview he said the company has made significant changes and is working hard to earn back the state's trust.