At a time when both public and private colleges and universities in West Virginia are struggling financially, does it make any sense to gift $5 million in taxpayer dollars to a private vocational college based in Steubenville, Ohio — essentially to move into West Virginia and offer the same services as the state’s community and technical colleges?

Of course not.

But that’s where we stand today, as the West Virginia Water Development Authority in October improperly approved a $5 million grant for the College of St. Joseph the Worker to expand into West Virginia. The college’s grant application, submitted by Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, was OK’d without the proper checks and balances that exist in state code to ensure public funding is being spent correctly. In this case, none of the three cabinet secretaries that were required to sign off on such an application — former Department of Economic Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael, former Department of Commerce Secretary James Bailey and current Department of Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby — actually signed off on the plan. Yet the Water Development Authority board, at the urging of top officials in Gov. Jim Justice’s office, chose to violate state code and approve the measure. The college’s grant application even incorrectly indicated it had been approved by Carmichael.

“It was my understanding that we would be provided with a letter from the secretary (Carmichael), however we do not have one on file,” WDA Executive Director Marie Prezioso said, once reporters started asking questions.

From the governor’s office: “It was this office’s understanding the project was verbally recommended with a formal letter forthcoming,” Justice spokesman C.J. Harvey wrote in an email to our reporter.

Understanding and reality appear to be very different things in the Justice Administration.

This issue raises so many questions. How many times has this happened in the past? Why are state leaders giving money to a private Ohio Catholic college at a time when funding to the state’s colleges and universities is at best stagnant? Why are we spending money to duplicate services already being offered — St. Joseph the Worker is a vocational school — at the state’s community and technical colleges?

McGeehan offered an explanation: “The College of St. Joseph the Worker is unique, insofar as it offers a holistic approach to shaping young men and women — one reason why I’m excited about it. Nowhere in the United States is there an institution that simultaneously trains the mind in the humanities while also in the manual trades. This is done by teaching young men and women the skilled trades … while also providing … a classical education along the way, both of which are greatly needed in our state.

“… Many of the problems our state suffers from are downstream of faltering local communities, weakened family bonds, and a younger generation without practical skills, who are quite often steeped in university debt. I’ll continue to do what I can to help reverse this trend.”

It’s a slippery slope when a government board made up of appointed members, using taxpayer dollars, attempts to incentivize such matters. Slipperier still, the ethical stance purportedly inspiring the whole matter is undermined by the Water Development Authority failing to follow state code.

The Justice Administration’s slipshod approach to the finer details of state government are coming to an end. Let us hope Gov.-elect Patrick Morrisey, who has served the state well over the past 12 years as attorney general, continues his above-board approach upon taking office Jan. 13. One of his first orders of business should be to address just how this grant, without any approvals, received the OK.

The taxpaying public has a right to know.