S.C. State refusing access to finances

South Carolina State University officials are refusing The Post and Courier access to public financial documents that could explain how about $25 million for transportation programs has been spent since the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center was launched 12 years ago.

University officials said late Monday the newspaper would have to file a formal request under the state's Freedom of Information law to obtain the information that by law should be made available to the public. That would allow them to wait 15 working days to say whether they intend to grant or deny the request. A denial could spark an extended and costly legal debate.

As the state's watchdog agency is gearing up to launch an investigation into how S.C. State spent the transportation center money, it remains unclear how much of a paper trail still exists.

University officials have given several different and incomplete explanations on which records the university has kept and where they are stored since The Post and Courier began investigating what happened to the transportation center money, and what the center has accomplished.

The newspaper's report, which ran June 14, prompted legislators to request the audit council investigation. The report revealed that 12 years after the center was launched, no transportation research was under way and university leaders were unable to explain how transportation center grant money was spent.

Read more in tomorrow's Post and Courier.