For years, Nassau residents have been besieged by bad news about their county's finances, including repeated deficits, a towering $3 billion debt, a nearly junk-bond credit rating, scathing audits and a state-imposed review board.

Then, in a scathing audit in April 2005, the state's inspector general concluded that the schools corporation was "vulnerable to mismanagement, fiscal malfeasance, conflicts of interest and waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars."

In a scathing 48-page audit, Mr. McCall accused the authority of stonewalling his investigation, saying that the agency routinely withheld documents and refused interviews.

Adding to the tumult, on Dec. 8 Mr. Mills issued a scathing financial audit of the district.

They announced another indictment involving the beleaguered Hempstead schools, which the state criticized in a scathing audit released on Monday.

In a scathing audit of last year's spending, state officials charged the Roosevelt School Board - the first in New York to be placed under state supervision - with allowing its finances to go "out of control."

Since the first of the year, state officials have issued a scathing audit, accusing the city of mismanagement.

The scandal at the housing agency erupted in 1989 after a scathing internal audit of a program intended to provide rent subsidy grants to developers to improve housing for poor families.

And to make matters worse, Alan G. Hevesi, the state comptroller, released a scathing audit last month holding town and school authorities accountable for the mess.

The scathing audit comes at a time of declining enrollment in the city's vocational high schools, even though construction industry representatives have loudly and repeatedly complained of shortages of trained workers.