Audits further tar DOT

ATLANTA --- A pair of reports by state auditors Wednesday deepened the swirl of financial and management questions that have plagued the Department of Transportation, even as members of the agency's board suggested there might be some answers soon.

Auditors gave the board an update on an ongoing examination of the department's financial state after releasing a final report on land purchases and condemnations by the DOT office responsible for acquiring right-of-way acreage for construction projects.

As part of the financial update, auditors revealed that DOT employees had recently discovered five boxes of contracts and agreements that had so far gone unnoticed, adding $360 million to a deficit that has defied attempts to define it.

In all, the agency could be forced to spend $456.2 million in motor fuel tax funds that were supposed to be used in this fiscal year, which began July 1, to patch a hole in the previous year. That comes on top of a complex series of financial transactions the state DOT board approved in June to fix a looming $1.2 billion shortfall, said John Thornton, the director of the State Government Division of the Department of Audits and Accounts.

"It's an unusual maneuver that had to be done, but (it was) the only option, really, there was," Mr. Thornton said.

Otherwise, the department would have been forced to cancel contracts. But officials from DOT and the attorney general's office said the department's books were in such bad shape that the agency would have been unable to identify which contracts caused the deficit, opening the state up to lawsuits.