OLYMPIA - It oversees one of the most important, controversial and expensive issues in Washington. So why is the state's transportation committee fighting a financial audit?

The issue has prompted an angry letter from the state auditor, and gotten the attention of the governor as well.

KING

State auditor Brian Sonntag is conducting a system-wide audit of transportation in Washington.

Transportation projects cost Washington taxpayers about $2-billion dollars a year. State auditor Brian Sonntag is the man in charge of keeping track of how it's all spent. He's currently conducting a system-wide audit of transportation in Washington. But at a special meeting last month with  the Legislature's transportation committee, he couldn't believe what he heard.

“We were met with questions and accusations accusing our office of being on a witch hunt, of having some hidden political agenda of our own,” he said. 

Sonntag was stunned because the Legislature itself authorized the audit last year under "engrossed substitute Senate bill 6839," allowing the auditor to examine the "efficiency, economy and effectiveness" of transportation programs.

Sources said that the audit examines some very politically sensitive areas including congestion on our roadways, management of the state ferry system and some areas that have never been subject to audit before.

Chair of the transportation committee Mary Margaret Haugen says she welcomes an audit but Sonntag's is too wide-ranging, and is focusing on big issues like "congestion" as opposed to things the Legislature can control.

“The auditor has this big shotgun approach that he's going to be looking at everything in a very short time -- things that we really have very little control over,” she said.

Adding fuel to the political fire is the fact that the auditor's final report will be released late next summer -- right before voters will be asked to spend huge sums of money on various transportation projects in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.

The report indicates poor money management could stall those critical projects indefinitely.

Sonntag asked the governor to get involved in the matter. He says her office will work to make sure the audit is completed fairly. DOT commissioner Doug MacDonald says his office plans to fully cooperate in the audit.