AUGUSTA — A decision about whether to launch an investigation into the Department of Environmental Protection over allegations that Commissioner Patricia Aho is pandering to her former private-sector clients was delayed Thursday morning at the request of Sen. Chris Johnson, D-Somerville.

Johnson, who on July 1 called for an Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability investigation of the DEP, said he wanted more time to consider the issue before moving forward, according to Sen. Emily Cain, D-Orono, who chairs the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, which would have to approve the probe. There was no indication of a timeline for a final decision on whether the oversight committee, made up of six Democrats and six Republicans, would authorize a probe.

Johnson, who was not available for comment Thursday morning because he was participating in the committee’s meeting, requested the investigation after articles were published by the Portland Press Herald-Maine Sunday Telegram alleging that Aho guided the DEP in ways that benefited her former clients.

“Given the seriousness of these accusations, I think this investigation is well within the bounds of OPEGA’s authority, and I would further recommend that this investigation be expedited,” wrote Johnson in a July 1 letter to Beth Ashcroft, director of the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability. “In regards to any evidence of laws broken, obviously the attorney general’s office would need to be involved.”

The Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability is an investigative body administered by the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee.