In a yarn spun with precision–NDOT Director Tracy Larkin faced the music before the Board of Directors–addressing a state audit that sniffed out $25 million in record-keeping discrepancies as if the department’s books were penned by a sleepwalking clerk.
With a twinkle of resolve, Larkin declared no hoard of treasure—nay, not $25 million in goods—had vanished into the Nevada dust. The culprit? A clerical blunder, mistaking a stockpile of 40 million glass beads for road striping as a mere 404,000, accounting for $15 million of the auditors’ quarry.
Legislative Auditor Daniel Crossman, a man with the keen eye of a frontier scout, noted NDOT had patched some holes in its ledger since the audit’s shadow fell, but $10 million in discrepancies still loiter like unclaimed baggage. A follow-up report, due when the leaves turn, promises to reckon with these stragglers.
About a state vehicle cozying up to a director’s home, Larkin waved off scandal, claiming it’s a rightful perk for those poised to leap into an emergency fray, provided the IRS gets its paperwork dues. She vowed to spruce up NDOT’s vehicle policies, as one might polish a tarnished heirloom, ensuring all forms are as tidy as a parson’s Sunday suit.
Yet, on the audit’s whisper of $25,000 in tire invoices lost in the bureaucratic brambles, Larkin kept mum, her silence louder than a desert wind. Declining a chinwag on camera and with NDOT’s mouthpiece dodging queries like a coyote skirts a trap, Larkin’s retort to the audit’s prodding is this October, when the department’s six-month reckoning is due.
Till then–the tale of NDOT’s books, part-corrected but not wholly sung, lingers like a half-told story by a campfire’s glow.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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