State legislators must force change at the transportation agency. This state cannot afford to waste money.

Bottom line: Money is wasted at the state Department of Transportation. This state agency -- with more than $1 billion in annual expenditures and 5,000 employees -- certainly doesn't abuse every dollar that it has, nor even most of its money.

But enough money is wasted that state residents have a reason to question if they're getting their money's worth from this powerful state agency that largely answers to no one. South Carolina has critical needs when it comes to state highways, and it's easy to argue the state highway agency needs more money.

The Legislative Audit Council report released Tuesday leaves little question that some of the money entrusted to DOT could be spent more wisely. Tuesday's long-awaited audit came after a year-long performance review. It should awaken state legislators to the need not only to change the way DOT does business, but more important, to change how it does business.

That means the Legislature will have to give DOT a real boss, meaning the governor of this state. Almost every other state does that, and so should South Carolina. As it now stands, DOT answers to powerful legislators who heavily influence the appointment of the six commissioners who come from each congressional district. The governor has one appointee, the commission's chairman. Gov. Mark Sanford's appointee, Tee Hooper of Greenville, gets a large share of the credit for highlighting the problems that led legislators to call for this LAC performance audit.

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The almost 100-page audit makes many points, some of them favorable of how DOT does business.

Many of the findings are devastating, such as: DOT wastes money in the way it hires and pays private consultants. For example, by making fixed payments prior to work being completed, DOT paid private contractors about $8.7 million for work that had been eliminated from contracts. Also, the projects managed by private consultants were about 7 percent more over budget than those managed by DOT employees. And DOT paid some contractors more in management fees than probably was necessary, resulting in a loss of about $32 million.

More problems were uncovered, including: There was evidence DOT attempted to lower its cash balances during the legislative session by delaying billings for reimbursements from the Federal Highway Administration, a practice that may have cost $1.5 million in lost interest during two recent fiscal years. And DOT's "audit program for preconstruction contracts is inadequate, ineffective and not in compliance with federal law."

To this, a defensive DOT attacked the audit for negative findings that are "overstated," "misleading" and "based on incomplete information."

Gov. Sanford sees through this smoke. So should DOT commissioners and state legislators. It's time to clean up DOT and make sure it spends each dollar as efficiently as possible. To make sure the reforms will last, this huge state agency must be made more accountable to the governor of South Carolina.

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