When state lawmakers direct the distribution of community grants, otherwise known as Walking Around Money or WAMs, oversight on how that money is spent is too often lax.

And given the misuse of state funds and assets revealed in the federal corruption trial of former state Sen. Vincent Fumo, as well as the allegations of misuse of state funds issued to a nonprofit organization created and controlled by former state Rep. Mike Veon, a plan to tighten oversight over the use of state grant money is welcome, and clearly overdue.

State Sen. Jane Orie, R-Allegheny, reintroduced legislation late last month that is designed to improve monitoring by the Department of Community and Economic Development over how state grant money is spent, and if the grant produces the economic results that were promised.

Orie's plan calls for annual reports to be filed by the nonprofits receiving the state grants. Current law required reporting only after the money is all spent, which in some cases can span years.

Orie's plan also calls for site visits to recipients of larger state grants or loans.

The Fumo corruption trial in Philadelphia revealed how the former lawmaker and power broker used funds and other assets of a nonprofit with which he had close ties for his own personal and political benefit.

Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods was run by a former Fumo aide and, though it did receive state grant money, most of its funds came from a multimillion-dollar donation that Fumo extracted from PECO Energy, an electric utility in Philadelphia.

Similar to the misuse of funds that led to Fumo's conviction, Veon is accused of using state grant money to benefit himself and other Demo-crats. An investigation into the nonprofit that Veon created and controlled, the Beaver Initiative for Growth (BIG), showed that more than 75 percent of the funds went to administrative costs, salaries and consultants. And it appears that the consultants hired often had made campaign contributions to Veon and other Democrats. One consultant in particular, which benefited from no-bid contracts from Veon and BIG, had hired Veon's brother for a $160,000-a-year job.

State Attorney General Tom Corbett's office reported that between 2003 and 2007, Delta Development received more than $1 million from BIG and Veon. During that same period, Delta made significant political contributions to Veon and other House Democratic candidates.

Corbett's investigation alleges that Delta Development did little or no work for the money from BIG.

It is just this sort of abuse of taxpayers' money that Orie's bill is intended to stop by requiring stricter oversight of how grant money is spent.

Fumo's conviction and the evidence already made public in the case against Veon reveal a shocking lack of accountability once state grants are awarded, mostly at the sole discretion of powerful state lawmakers.

Once again, taxpayers see that, when spending what Fumo liked to call OPM, other people's money, there is little incentive to see that that money is spent appropriately. And this lack of interest in ensuring that state funds are spent properly is found in state lawmakers' handing out WAMs and also in the bureaucracy at DCED.

Orie's bill is designed to impose more rigorous accountability over how taxpayers' money is spent through these development grants. It could help, but the ultimate solution requires honest and ethical politicians, as well as bureaucrats within state government who give the same attention to the spending of taxpayer money as they do to the spending of their own money.

Orie's bill should help prevent abuses of grant money in the future, but it's also necessary to bring about a broader culture change in Harrisburg.