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COLUMBIA -- The chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee said Wednesday a management audit of the state Department of Transportation shows "inept financial management, gross overpayment and overall lack of good business practices."

The comments by Sen. Greg Ryberg, an Aiken County businessman who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, came as Gov. Mark Sanford said the lengthy report is a "call to action" for lawmakers to place the giant agency in the governor's Cabinet.

The Legislative Audit Council report released Tuesday accused the agency, which manages the nation's fourth-largest state-maintained road system, of wasting millions of dollars and violating state and federal laws.

DOT officials have accused the LAC of inaccuracies and misleading statements in the report, noting that no significant problems were found in areas involving 99 percent of the agency's expenditures.

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"The issue is no longer if there is a problem at DOT. There clearly is a problem, and it is out of control," Ryberg said. "The question is what will we do to overhaul this agency?"

Ryberg and Sanford repeated their positions -- echoed by other legislative leaders -- that the agency not receive a boost in funding until it is reformed.

Sanford told reporters, "We think it's very important that we don't add more money to DOT until we have structural reforms at DOT."

Sanford said the LAC is unbiased and avoided some controversial DOT-related issues such as whether some highway commissioners are serving longer than allowed by law or whether the agency should take a stand on a proposed $150 million bridge and road across Lake Marion championed by South Carolina U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.

Sanford, who has long pushed to bring the DOT into the Cabinet, said lawmakers should do what 47 other states have done and allow the governor to appoint the executive director of the agency or its board. Now the governor appoints the board's chairman, and lawmakers appoint the remaining six commissioners.

Three legislative committees are expected to review the report, two of them beginning this week.