Prosecutors and school officials there are investigating $8 million in questionable spending by district employees.

I put together a 52-page list of items in this budget that watchdog groups would identify as questionable spending.

The Nassau district attorney is now investigating at least $7.8 million in questionable spending by Roslyn school employees.

Auditors can't find every example of questionable spending that might occur, he said; were they to try, the cost would be prohibitive.

The questionable spending touched off two audits in 2002 by the inspector general, and a civil inquiry by the federal Department of Justice.

Government agencies normally have independent, strictly nonpartisan inspectors general, with broad powers to investigate questionable spending.

The three federal reviews have found nearly $20 million in what investigators have described as questionable spending of federal aid.

Federal authorities are now investigating that transaction as part of their broad inquiry into questionable spending at the university.

But the committee found that questionable spending began in 1992 or early 1993.

But education experts say it is easy to spot areas of questionable spending - among them, job categories that traditionally have been associated with political patronage.