Virginia’s state auditor released a report last week saying the state Transportation Department has recklessly expanded road-building efforts without knowing how it’s going to pay for them,
along with poor management, failing computer systems and other problems.
According to published reports, auditor Walter Kucharski consistently has underestimated how much road projects will cost, while a 10,000-person bureaucracy doesn’t keep track of the money it gets and the money it spends.
The DOT has borrowed against federal money it expects to receive in the future, Kucharski said, and by 2006 will have already spent any future federal funds.
Gov. Mark Warner, who demanded the audit shortly after taking office this year, says there is a new management team in place at the agency. VDOT Commissioner Philip Shucet has asked his staff to come up with a plan within 30 days to implement Kucharski’s recommendations, but notes that some of the worst problems in the audit report have already been addressed. Administration officials said 35 of the 50 recommendations Kucharski made are already being implemented.
Instead of getting defensive, as has been the case with previous VDOT audits, Shucet praised the 123-page study, according to The Washington Post.
The result of many of these changes will likely be cancellation of many road projects, with funds being diverted to needed maintenance. Kucharski said the DOT will have to pull $900 million out of its construction funds to pay for highway upkeep over the next six years. State transportation officials already cut $3 billion in projects out of the state’s six-year funding plan.