George Zaborowski, we know what you're thinking, or muttering. It would be something like, "What am I, chopped liver?" Or maybe, as he seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of whistle-blowers, "I don't get no respect."

All Zaborowski did was tell The N&O's Dan Kane last fall that the fix was in when an exterminator outfit owned by Jon Black, son of former state House Speaker and current federal inmate Jim Black, was hired to bug-proof two new prisons being built in Greene and Columbus counties.

How so? According to Kane, Zaborowski, working then for a concrete subcontractor, said that he had been ordered by two officials for the main prison contractor, Centex Construction, to hire Black Pest Control. An unnamed state legislator in a position to influence the award of the overall job to Centex reportedly was pushing to get Jon Black involved.

"It was part of the deal," Kane quoted Z. as saying. "For Centex to get [the main contracts], this had to to happen."

Black Pest Control charged $124,000 for the work. A Virginia business bid $42,000 but lost out. Centex also hired Black for a third prison in Columbus County, although Black ended up withdrawing from that project. Black's price there was $73,600, compared with a Brunswick County firm's bid of $20,600.

The legislation authorizing the prisons didn't require subcontractors to be selected on the basis of low bids. Further, it allowed officials to choose Centex -- the contractor on three other prisons built a few years earlier -- without bidding. That had to rate as a sweet arrangement.

Well, if subcontractors legally could be picked without regard to bids, then picking Black Pest Control, even at a higher-than-necessary price, doesn't shape up as the worst example of insider favoritism resulting in a taxpayer ripoff that we've ever seen, although it doesn't belong in a civics book. (Officials with the London company that now owns Centex said Black Pest Control was chosen because Centex was pleased with Black's work on a couple of bank branches Centex had built.)

But consider Zaborowski's allegation that Centex landed the overall prison job because it played ball in ensuring that Black was hired. That's serious business -- which is why Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby, after pondering Kane's report, asked some SBI agents to check things out.

The interviews must have gone something like this: "Say, Hoss, we got this dude who says y'all told him he had to hire Jon Black."

Hoss: "No kiddin'. That's abso-tively the craziest thing I ever heard."

Agent: "Oh, OK. He must be makin' things up. You're good to go."

It does make you wonder whether the agents ever got around to talking with Black (whose father went to prison for unrelated crookedness). Zaborowski told Kane that he had tried to get Black to lower his price, but that Black wouldn't budge. And the pest controller supposedly went on to tell Z. that if he (Black) didn't get the work, the concrete company Z. worked for would never pass another state inspection. "He said, 'Look, you have to use me,' " was how Zaborowski put it to Kane.

Zaborowski ended up getting fired from D.H. Griffin Concrete Services; he called the move retaliatory, but the company faulted his performance and failure to disclose past convictions for larceny and theft. When Kane caught up with him, he was working in Iowa. As to his credibility regarding Black, who knows?

Anyway, when the SBI folks reported back to Willoughby, they didn't exactly come with big game strapped across the hood. The D.A. told Kane recently that they hadn't turned up "significant evidence to warrant a criminal investigation."

Apparently nobody could, or would, back up Zaborowski's account. Imagine that. They're probably shocked and offended he would say such nasty things. It's too bad Willoughby isn't releasing the SBI report, so we could tell who was questioned and what they actually said.

Guess who has a fine idea for how to overcome the sort of stonewalling that our SBI stalwarts may well have encountered -- Willoughby! He, along with Attorney General Roy Cooper, favors broadening the reach of state investigative grand juries to cover suspected instances of public corruption.

Prosecutor: "Hoss, was the fix in? Tell the truth or we'll bust you for perjury."

Hoss: "Wait, wait, it's all coming back to me ..."

For now, investigative grand juries where witnesses are questioned under oath are a useful tool available to federal prosecutors. We're only trying to be helpful when we suggest that the feds call in George Zabor-owski and just follow the trail from there. And, Mr. Z, if you have the goods, we hear they treat you right in witness protection ...