The audit pointed to a culture of "management favoritism" in corrections and said that upper-level management ignored indiscretions that would get most corrections employees fired. Some people were investigated for wrongdoing, while others were not.

In a 2004 report prepared by the governor's transition team, corrections management was referred to as "incestuous, self-protective and having created an atmosphere of intimidation and extremely disparate discipline when it comes to issues involving administrators versus line employees."

The governor's transition report recommended Carver be replaced as executive director, although Huntsman waited until the audit came out to take that action. Carver reacted to the audit by suggesting a perception problem, blaming a "subset of Corrections staff (who) harbor a belief in management favoritism."

Waddoups defended Carver as an "honorable man who got trapped."

The committee's focus Monday was on what Patterson was going to do to fix the problem.

"You need to know this thing is so terrible that in another year I'm going to ask for another audit to see what progress we've made," Buttars said.

Patterson welcomed it.

"I think that audits help us be accountable to the public," he said. "There's no reason there should be any fear in an audit if we're doing our jobs."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com