Editorial: Full accounting needed

Friday, March 16, 2007 | 6:56 a.m.

State lawmakers have asked for an audit to sort out why Nevada never received nearly $3.4 million in fees from the company that runs the state's program to help parents save for their children's college education.

The situation raises serious questions about the way the education fund was run under former state Treasurer Brian Krolicki, who is now the lieutenant governor. Krolicki said Wednesday that everything was "done by the book," but there are several concerns about the program, including:

It is clear that, at best, Krolicki made some poor choices regarding the college savings plan.

First, Krolicki should never have appeared in ads that ran during a campaign year. It looks like he was exploiting a state program to advance his own career.

Second, he shouldn't have renegotiated the contract, given he was close to the end of his term and the contract wasn't close to expiring. He should have left the issue for his successor.

Third, while he says he had the legal authority to act in the ways he did, he should have kept the Legislature informed of these multimillion-dollar decisions.

There needs to be a full accounting by legislative auditors of just what happened. Krolicki, knowing he would be investigated, tried to get out in front of the issue and asked, as Treasurer Kate Marshall did a day later, for a review by the attorney general's office. We think that would be in order, too.

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