COLUMBIA - The head of the agency asked by state lawmakers to look at the South Carolina Hunley Commission's finances says it would be a conflict of interest to investigate.

Legislative Audit Council Director George Schroeder said Wednesday that his agency and the commission are in the legislative branch of government, and the council could not audit the commission independently.

In a memo to Legislative Audit Council board members, Schroeder suggested the audit could be done by the state auditor's office, which is in a different branch of government.

"It's a conflict of interest," Schroeder said. "In the world of auditors, this is a fundamental principle."

The Hunley submarine project is a rare instance of legislators keeping a spending program. Most state spending takes place in executive branch agencies, such as the Department of Public Safety, or the judicial branch, Schroeder said.

The Confederate submarine was the first in history to sink an enemy warship. It was raised from the ocean floor in 2000 and brought to a conservation lab at the old Charleston Navy base, where it sits in a tank of cold water.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, chairman of the commission, has said about $17 million has been spent during the past eight years on the Hunley project.

John Crangle, state director of the citizens watchdog group Common Cause, said an outside auditor should be hired.

"That way, whoever did it would be free from retaliation by state politicians if they didn't like the results," he said.