A free spending college president.A deal between Boston City Hall and the Red Sox.Millions of dollars for children's special education: misspent.Watch the 5 Investigates reportAll targets of the Massachusetts Inspector General."We are charged with preventing and detecting fraud, waste and abuse in the expenditure of government funds. And our governing statute requires state agencies to cooperate with us," explained Inspector General Glenn Cunha.But Five Investigates found instead of cooperating and simply turning over the requested documents, some agencies targeted by the Inspector General are hiring expensive private law firms to fight those requests, and it is costing taxpayers millions of dollars."We are trying to get to the bottom of the root of waste, fraud and abuse, and in doing so all of this money is being spent to fight our efforts. So it really doesn't make sense," said Cunha.Take Westfield State University.When the Inspector General began probing hundreds of thousands of dollars of questionable spending by then President Evan Dobelle, the school responded through private lawyers from two downtown law firms, including Fish and Richardson, who were billing at $675 an hour.That legal bill topped $1.3 million."We're on the phone with lawyers from these law firms, we are going back and forth with correspondence, emails, we are all paying for that," said Cunha.The Merrimack Special Education Collaborative was caught misusing more than $10 million in public funds. When the Inspector General requested documents from that agency, they responded with lawyers from Lurie and Krupp in Boston at a cost of 300 dollars an hour.The Inspector General has opened an investigation into the dealings between the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Red Sox involving the team's lease of Yawkey Way, the Monster Seats over Lansdowne Street and the Red Sox sale of part of a parking lot to the city.To deal with that investigation, the Boston Redevelopment Authority said it paid the private law firm Greenburg Traurig approximately $126,000.David Tuerck, with the Beacon Hill Institute, said this is further waste of taxpayer dollars."The purpose of these investigations is to uncover waste, fraud and abuse and here we have these very same entities wasting taxpayer money presumably because they have something to hide, presumably because they want to be careful about what they reveal when their duty is to reveal everything that's being asked for," Tuerck said.He said he wants people to think about calling their legislators and telling them to put a stop to it.The Education Collaborative had no comment on its legal bills. The BRA spokesman  likened dealing with the Inspector General to a grand jury investigation and said as a result, they needed to hire outside lawyers.Westfield State University said because the Inspector General's investigations can lead to civil or criminal charges, they chose to use lawyers, adding that they had to hire outside firms because they don't have legal counsel on staff.Cunha said most of his office's requests involved financial records and transactions, and many of these agencies have general counsels on staff that are able to do the job."When we do our investigations and are hit with lawyers from high-priced law firms fighting our requests and summonses, it just is counter-intuitive to what we're here for. We're here to make sure there isn't waste of government funds," he said. "Particularly with a new administration coming in, I think what needs to happen is a message to agency heads to think twice before hiring outside law firms."5 Investigates reached out to the incoming Baker administration to ask if they will review these practices.Spokesman Tim Buckley released this statement, "Governor-elect Baker expects state agencies to cooperate with the Inspector General whenever appropriate in order to root out government waste and protect taxpayers."----The full statement from Westfield State University:The Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) investigation into the spending practices of former university president Evan S. Dobelle commenced in August 2013, and concluded with the release of a report of its findings on July 31, 2014.  From the outset of the investigation, the university fully cooperated with the OIG. As a general principal, because investigations conducted by the OIG and other state or federal law enforcement agencies have the potential to lead to civil and/or criminal charges, the university considered it prudent to utilize legal counsel to provide advice and assistance in complying with the investigation.  We do not have legal counsel on staff:  along with the other Massachusetts state universities, we have concluded that it is more cost effective to work with a full-service external law firm.Former President Dobelle elected to hire the law firm of Fish and Richardson as legal counsel for the university with regard to the OIG investigation.  Several months into the OIG investigation, the board of trustees broadened Fish & Richardson’s engagement to include a comprehensive, independent investigation of the issues raised by the OIG as well as spending, employment, and leadership issues at the university. The university’s investigation concluded upon the resignation of former President Dobelle in November 2013.At the time the OIG issued its’ final report nearly a year later, the university had already implemented significant corrective actions based on analyses of the information requested by the OIG or our counsel.  Our analysis also allowed us to plan and to act promptly upon the ultimate release of the OIG’s report.These reforms included the restructuring of the senior administration; completing an independent review of all policies, procedures and practices related to university finances by the commonwealth’s Comptroller, whose findings were released in April 2014; establishing  a new Audit Committee charged with overseeing all external financial audits, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, and monitoring internal controls; revising our budgeting process, significantly increasing transparency regarding financial information and involving the campus community in the stewardship of university resources. Additionally, to eliminate the potential for abuse of university and Foundation-issued credit cards, the university transitioned from the use of credit cards to procurement cards (p-cards), which resemble credit cards but have enhanced controls.-----Full statement from the Boston Redevelopment Authority:"Our legal staff is a small team of real estate attorneys that handle a large volume of case work for the entire agency. While we always strive to rely on internal capacity, in certain instances, such as the ongoing investigation by the Inspector General, we believe it is prudent to supplement our in-house legal staff with outside counsel that has expertise in matters of litigation.The Inspector General's review of our agreement with the Red Sox is not a simple public records request and is being conducted in similar fashion to a grand jury investigation. We have gone above and beyond to be responsive to all of their inquiries on this issue, and our ability to provide this level of access and transparency required outside assistance. It is important to note that the Boston Redevelopment Authority is not a taxpayer-funded agency, and the public, therefore, bears no expense in this process."