Have you wondered why millions of tax dollars are spent but few roads are repaired? Read on.

According to research by Rick Brundrett, news editor of The Nerve, the newsletter of the government watchdog SC Policy Council:

• A retired state official has gone to work with a consultant to the controversial State Transportation Infrastructure Bank

The bank finances large construction projects that critics contend are chosen for political reasons.

The bank has approved more than $3 billion in new construction or expansion in Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Greenville and Spartanburg, according to the Coastal Conservation League.

Lawmakers control the bank, its 2 employees and almost $253 million budgeted in “other funds.”

• Retired Department of Transportation deputy secretary Ronald Patton told Brundrett he now works for STV Inc., a national transportation consultancy.

• Patton said he started a month after his June 2017 retirement from DOT where his salary was $137,647.

He did not say how much STV is paying him.

• Patton was DOT’s liaison to the Infrastructure Bank. He does the same for STV.

In the last 11 years, DOT paid STV Inc. more than $8.8 million and the infrastructure bank at least $1.2 million, according to state Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom’s records.

“That just reeks of collusion,” said retired DOT Director B.K. Jones.

Jones was a founder of the bank to build state projects. He said his successor, Elizabeth Mabry, abandoned the project list.

She retired in 2006 after state auditors charged that DOT wasted $50 million under her leadership.

Two federal lawsuits and a state lawsuit were filed by retired DOT biologist Jeffrey West. He charged that Patton and other DOT officials violated state laws and policies, costing taxpayers millions of dollars and making roads and bridges unsafe.

The suits were eventually dismissed without any admissions of wrongdoing.

Court records show West was paid off with a raise, a vehicle, $25,000 in attorneys fees and could work from home until he retired.

The settlement became public last year when West again sued Patton and other DOT officials, alleging they violated the agreement.