Former NiSource Chief Executive Gary Neale's total pay more than doubled after the Merrillville energy company inherited a valuable service contract with Hewitt Associates, which also advises NiSource's board on executive pay.

From 1996 to 2000, NiSource stock rose 32 percent, and Neale made $9.5 million.

Then in 2000, Hewitt picked up NiSource's benefits administration as part of a merger. In the next five years, the stock price fell 61 percent, but Neale's compensation was worth $21 million.

"In effect, the consultants are being asked to evaluate the worth of the executives who hire them and pay them millions of dollars," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said in a December 2007 hearing. "Like the auditors who signed off on Enron's books, they have an inherent conflict of interest."