COLUMBIA S.C. — Mismanagement and a lack of planning are largely to blame for construction delays at a troubled transportation research center at South Carolina State University named for U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, according to a state audit released Tuesday.
The Legislative Audit Council found no evidence of missing money in its limited review, but questioned spending and billing. The report also noted the Orangeburg school doesn’t have a viable plan to raise more than $80 million needed to complete the center, which was announced more than a dozen years ago.
“This report was mindboggling to me. The people responsible for this enterprise … made the Keystone Cops look like a professional business organization,” said Mallory Factor, a council board member from Charleston.
Lawmakers asked for the audit after years of construction delays, coupled with newspaper reports that school officials couldn’t account for millions in state and federal funding for the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center, announced in 1998 as a showpiece for research and training of workers in the transportation industry.
Auditors noted that a random review of expenses from 2007 to 2009 raised questions about travel reimbursements, such as paying $426 nightly for a hotel, and workers double-dipping in pay. The agency said it forwarded that information to the State Law Enforcement Division for review.
As of March, the university had spent $8 million money available since 2002. The first building is set for completion this year. That’s the 11,000-square-foot “chiller plant,” which is meant to cool the entire six-building center.
The project suffered a nearly two-year setback after construction started on land the university thought it owned, but didn’t. Other delays were caused by the site’s lack of water pressure and failing to conduct a traffic study for years, according to auditors.
