LEWISTON — Eleven people from the Maine Turnpike Authority have agreed to answer questions from Maine legislators on what happened to more than $157,000 in gifts reportedly collected and distributed by the highway organization. Included is Lewiston’s Lucien Gosselin, who serves as the group’s audit subcommittee chairman.

And a 12th, former Executive Director Paul Violette, plans to appear at the April 15 meeting of the Government Oversight Committee, too.

However, it’s uncertain whether he’ll answer any questions.

“It depends on what’s asked,” said Violette’s lawyer, Portland attorney Peter DeTroy. If questions suggest anything criminal, DeTroy may counsel Violette to invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

“We don’t know what information they have,” DeTroy said.

The committee’s meeting is meant to gather information, said Beth Ashcroft, the director of the Legislature’s Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability. Her office, OPEGA, analyzed the Maine Turnpike Authority’s finances over five years, from 2005 to 2009.

It’s 80-page report portrayed an organization with a good credit rating but questioned the way some money was spent, including the hiring of outside lobbyists and more than $1 million on travel by authority representatives. The issue of an estimated $157,000 in gift certificates has been particularly controversial since the report was published.

“There was a list of transactions that had been reported to us as being the purchases of gift certificates,” Ashcroft said Monday. “Because the MTA actually had no records of where those gift certificates had been donated, this has been an effort to understand what are those transactions really. And if they are the purchase of gift certificates, where have those purchases gone?”

Gosselin said Monday he plans to cooperate fully with the committee, though he wonders what else he can tell them.

Last month, he talked with officials for more than 90 minutes, he said.

“I have answered every question I have been asked,” he said.

People who answer the committee’s questions may be asked to testify while under oath, according to a letter sent to all 12 by the Government Oversight Committee.

The other invitees include Maine Turnpike Authority Chairman Gerard Conley Sr., board member Richard Valentino, Chief Financial Officer Neil Libby, Chief Operating Officer Peter Merfeld, finance and IT director Douglas Davidson, controller John Sirois, staff attorney Jonathan Arey, public affairs assistant Bruce Pelletier, government relations manager Conrad Welzel and executive secretary Roxanne Frenette.

In early March, Violette resigned after 23 years as the authority’s director. Former Maine Sen. Peter Mills was named interim executive director.

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