South Carolina’s Roads Are Broken Because SCDOT Is Broken
Charleston, SC — South Carolina’s crumbling roads are the predictable result of a broken system inside the South Carolina Department of Transportation, according to a new audit released today by DOGESC.
Using proprietary artificial intelligence tools, DOGESC conducted a comprehensive, provision-by-provision analysis of SCDOT regulations to determine whether the agency is operating within the authority granted by the General Assembly.
The findings are alarming.
DOGESC reviewed 78 SCDOT regulations containing 913 individual provisions. Each provision was classified based on whether it was explicitly required by statute, expanded beyond statutory intent, or entirely unauthorized under state or federal law.
Only 3.1% of SCDOT regulations were explicitly mandated by statute or federal law.
A staggering 60.0% expanded statutory mandates beyond what lawmakers clearly authorized, relying on vague legislative language to justify sweeping regulatory control.
Most troubling, 36.9% of SCDOT provisions were found to be outright unauthorized, untethered from any clear statutory authority.
“This is exactly how power and wealth is transferred from the citizen to the government” said Rom Reddy, founder of DOGESC. “South Carolina agencies are making policy, expanding the law, and in many cases inventing rules with no legal foundation,. without a single vote by elected lawmakers.”
While the nearly 37% of unauthorized regulations represent the most obvious legal violations, DOGESC also emphasized that the problem that lies with the 60% of rules that expand statutory authority beyond what lawmakers approved.
“Six out of ten SCDOT rules that govern South Carolinians were written by unelected bureaucrats to expand the scope of the law,” Reddy said. “These rules function as law because agencies say they do. That is not oversight. That is delegation without limits.”
The unauthorized provisions affect the most consequential areas of transportation governance, including contractor eligibility, project prioritization, compliance requirements, enforcement mechanisms, penalties, and exclusions.
“Once an agency is allowed to make law, it eventually starts making law it was never authorized to make,” Reddy said.
Under the South Carolina Constitution, lawmaking authority is vested in the General Assembly. Executive authority is vested in the Governor.
“SCDOT is controlled by an unelected eight-member board appointed by legislators,” Reddy said. “That raises a serious separation-of-powers issue. Who is in charge? Who is accountable? Right now, the answer is no one.”
According to the audit, 96.9% of SCDOT regulations were either expanded beyond their statutory intent or never authorized at all.
“That is not a technical problem,” Reddy said. “That is a leadership failure.”
DOGESC announced that the SCDOT audit is part of a broader effort to examine South Carolina’s administrative state, expose regulatory overreach, and restore constitutional accountability.
“This isn’t partisan,” Reddy said. “It’s about whether laws are made by elected representatives or quietly written by bureaucrats. Right now, South Carolina is being governed by regulation, not representation. And until that changes, our roads and our government will remain broken.”