CHEYENNE -- State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jim McBride has asked Attorney General Pat Crank to review the findings of an independent audit of the state Department of Education for any criminal violations in the use of federal dollars.

Among the audit's findings: The department improperly spent all or part of federal grants totaling some $443,000 during fiscal year 2004-05, including $200,000 for a children's book series illustrated by the husband of a deputy state superintendent. And former Superintendent Trent Blankenship allegedly misspent $1,431.38 in grant money in traveling to Washington, D.C., for President Bush's second inauguration.

McBride's letter to Crank said he expected the attorney general to take appropriate action if it appears "any criminal action has occurred."

"While I have the capacity to know bad judgment when I see it, I am not in a position to draw a legal conclusion," McBride wrote. He noted that the audit had some findings that dealt with simple allocation of funds and accounting procedures but said others may be more serious.

No federal funding was deemed missing by auditors, however, ahead of the Department of Education's plans to transfer the monitoring of federal grants from a computer system run by the education department to one run by the Wyoming Department of Audit.

The audit focused on Blankenship's last year in office, and didn't cover any of McBride's tenure. McBride was appointed to the superintendent's job in August 2005.

Crank said he perused the audit and would look at it more closely over the next couple weeks.

"We'll study it some more and look at some of those findings, go pull some of the underlying documents and see what they show or don't show," Crank said.

The audit found a number of cases of questionable spending of federal grant money, including special education money for equipment in the department's Riverton office.

Among the questionable findings in the audit was a travel voucher submitted by Blankenship for $1,431 for a trip to Washington, D.C., Jan. 19-21, 2005, to attend a meeting related to the state assessment process. According to the hotel invoice, Blankenship attended President George W. Bush's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2005.

Federal rules do not allow use of federal funds to pay for politically related activities, the audit said.

Blankenship, who quit his elected post in Wyoming last summer for a job as district superintendent in Barrow, Alaska, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal declined to comment.

Another questionable use of federal money was $200,000 in special education funds to Painted Pony LLC to produce five early literature training books for American Indian students. The books were sent to all of the students in one elementary grade in many school districts in the state, instead of being used only to educate children with disabilities. Funding for the project came from the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act program.

The audit said of the book deal, "The contract does not clearly fit the allowable activities of special education funding."

The audit also pointed out that although the department had paid for five books, not all of them had been printed.

"We got three sets so far and two are to be delivered," McBride said. "They are nice products."

The price isn't an issue, he added, but the department should have bought them with Bureau of Indian Affairs money or some other grant rather than special education funds.

The first book was illustrated by Jon Cox, whose wife, Tammy Cox, was deputy superintendent for special programs and worked out of Riverton. The sole-source contract for the project was signed by Deputy Superintendent Quinn Carroll, according to education department documents.

Both Cox and Carroll resigned as McBride cut six administrative positions Sept. 2, a couple weeks after McBride took office.

In addition, the audit said the department would have a $500,000 deficit if a problem in administrative costs wasn't being resolved by the new administration. McBride noted that when he took over the department he dismissed 18 employes. Many were being paid with administrative dollars from some of the federal grants.

During his second day as superintendent, McBride said he asked accountants to project expenditures in every account to the end of the biennium. The Riverton special education office was more than $2 million in the red and had a staff of 37, he said. He cut the staff to 19.

The audit was done by the accounting firm Porter, Muirhead, Cornia and Howard, of Casper. McBride said several state agencies will be switching oversight from their computer systems to the one run by the Department of Audit, and he volunteered his agency to make the switch first and be audited as part of that process.

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.