Illinois Auditor General William Holland recently released an audit of former governor Rod Blagojevich’s last year in office, which revealed a list of problems regarding the way his administration hired legal help.

According to the audit, Blagojevich spent millions of taxpayer dollars on outside lawyers instead of using attorneys who were already on the state payroll, which had been standard practice. The report also mentions that the former governor opted not to use the attorney general’s office, often going around Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Nor did he seek competitive bids for the legal services; more than $5 million of $7.2 million in contracts weren’t competitively bid. And it was also reported that Blagojevich used taxpayer dollars to hire lawyers for his own impeachment-related issues.

Additionally, in what was apparently an attempt to disguise the growing legal costs, the Blagojevich administration distributed the bills amongst other state agencies.  Holland said that out of the $7.2 million worth of legal work performed during Blagojevich’s last year, the governor’s office paid less than $22,000. Burdening these agencies—including Public Health and Transportation—with the unrelated expense meant that each of the agencies had less money to spend on their own programs and services.

The list of offenses found by the audit confirms the astounding mishandling and mistreatment of Illinois government at the hands of Rod Blagojevich—at the cost of Illinois taxpayers.