PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) -- The ILO Group scandal doesn't appear to be going way any time soon. The good-government advocacy group Common Cause Rhode Island is calling on R.I. Secretary of State Gregg Amore to investigate and seek sanctions against Michael Magee, a former top adviser of Gov. Dan McKee who played an integral role in the state awarding the controversial education contract. Common Cause is also petitioning the R.I. Ethics Commission to review laws related to state contracting, and asking the panel to place stricter limits on lobbyists' gifts to public officials. "The investigation into how the ILO Group was awarded a state contract exposed politics at its worst including a procurement process full of back-scratching," Common Cause executive director John Marion said in a statement. “We are disappointed that the state’s public integrity laws did not protect against the unethical behavior revealed in the ILO Group investigations," he added. Common Cause's intervention is the latest development in the long-running ILO saga, coming just weeks after R.I. Attorney General Peter Neronha ended a three-year criminal investigation into the controversial state contract that was awarded to the education consulting firm ILO Group in 2021. Target 12 first revealed the contract in September 2021. Neronha concluded McKee clearly steered the multimillion-dollar contract to the new firm that had ties to Magee, but that the actions surrounding the deal didn't rise to the level of criminal activity. McKee has insisted his actions didn't state violate contracting rules. McKee celebrated the end of the criminal investigation, saying it proved his long-held claim that nobody within his administration violated the law. He also lambasted Neronha for making the findings of his investigation public, saying the decision was politically motivated and meant to hurt him and his family. “Millions of dollars were paid to destroy my reputation and my family’s reputation,” McKee said in October. Neronha's findings also sparked a war of words between McKee and Marion, who said at the time that "no Rhode Islander should feel good" about Neronha's report, and that Common Cause would review the investigation and determine whether to take any further action. Marion has now officially filed a complaint with the secretary of state, calling on Amore to seek sanctions against Magee for failing to register as a lobbyist at the time the ILO deal went through. ILO was a consulting firm established the week McKee took office by subordinates of Magee, who at the time led another organization called Chiefs for Change. Magee and ILO's managing partner Julia Rafal-Baer helped write the bidding documents for the education contract ILO later won over another firm with decades of experience that offered to do the work for far less money. An investigation by R.I. State Police detectives discovered a 2021 email between Rafal-Baer and a colleague in which she said, "It's a fixed RFP but luckily I know the person it's fixed for." The text was accompanied by a winky face emoji. (RFP is the acronym for "request for proposals," a government contracting process.) "This email shows that potential fraud or manipulation of the competitive bidding occurred at the outset of the process,” wrote State Police Sgt. Michael Brock in his agency’s summary of its ILO investigation. “It calls into question the legitimacy of the process that followed.” In addition to the complaint and petition, Marion said he also plans to push for legislation to "strengthen the limits on in-kind contributions to candidates" in the upcoming legislation session. State police zeroed in on the fact that Rafal-Baer used Chiefs for Change, Magee's firm, to pay $15,000 a month to the prominent political consulting firm SKDK to assist McKee with communications, both in his official role as governor and early in his campaign for a full term. McKee announced SKDK as his campaign consultant in April 2021 — while ILO was trying to secure its contract — and the firm was still working for him as late as the following February, his campaign manager told 12 News at the time. McKee later replaced SKDK with a different firm. Neronha ultimately decided the movement of funds didn't prove McKee violated bribery or campaign-finance laws, saying he found "cloudy and contradictory" evidence. Regardless, Marion said laws surrounding these issues need to be tightened. "While ultimately few may be held accountable, Rhode Islanders deserve to know this behavior won’t be repeated," he said. "That is why we are seeking these changes to our ethics and campaign finance laws.” Eli Sherman ([email protected]) is a Target 12 investigative reporter for 12 News. Connect with him on Twitter and on Facebook. Tim White ([email protected]) is Target 12 managing editor and chief investigative reporter and host of Newsmakers for 12 News. Connect with him on Twitter and Facebook. Ted Nesi contributed to this report.