As the number of state troopers accused of abusing overtime programs to pad their paychecks has increased -- from 21, to 30, to 42 -- two major questions remain unanswered.

How much money was at stake? And what steps did the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which funded Massachusetts State Police Troop E's patrols on the Massachusetts Turnpike, take to ensure its money was being spent responsibly?

While an ongoing probe by State Attorney General Maura Healey's Office has prompted state police to decline comment on the amount of money stolen, records of program funding, audits and MassDOT financial reports could shed light on those questions.

But for months, both MassDOT and state police have failed to explain how much was spent on Accident Injury Reduction Effort (AIRE) patrols, a now-cancelled program to fund overtime traffic enforcement on the Mass. Pike that dozens of troopers allegedly abused.

And for weeks MassDOT has flouted state public records law, failing to give any formal answer to MassLive's requests for financial reports and audits the agency was authorized to create through its 2010 agreement to fund Troop E.

MassLive filed an appeal with the state Supervisor of Records, who on June 5 ordered the agency to respond "without delay." No such response has yet been issued.

MassDOT would not provide any on-record explanation for the delays.

"We are continuing to actively work to fulfill your records request," MassDOT spokesman Patrick Marvin wrote in an email Tuesday.

The two agencies also appear to be in dispute about who is in possession of financial data about the ill-fated overtime program. MassDOT had told MassLive that state police would produce that information, but on Tuesday Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio indicated the opposite.

"My understanding was that [MassDOT] was getting you some records today," Procopio wrote in an email. "It was their funding and they have the responsive records."

Procopio wrote he would check with the department's legal staff about the status of the records.

Massachusetts State Police have been battered by a wave of scandals over the last year, from allegations of a censored arrest report that cost former Col. Richard McKeon his job to revelations about the hiring of a coconspirator in a federal drug case as a trooper.

But the no-show shift allegations have had by far the largest scope and were the target of the most sweeping reforms initiated by Gov. Charlie Baker and new Col. Kerry Gilpin -- including the dissolution of Troop E and the activation of GPS tracking on state police cruisers.

On March 20, 2018, Gilpin announced that 21 troopers had been investigated for allegedly abusing the AIRE shifts. An audit had revealed that troopers had been paid for shifts they did not work, Gilpin said.

Additional troopers were implicated over the following months, as the allegations sparked both a state criminal investigation and a federal grand jury.

In May, MassDOT released a copy of its 2010 memorandum of understanding with the state police, in which the agency agreed to fully fund Troop E, which was responsible for patrolling the MassPike, Boston's Callahan, Sumner, CANA and Ted Williams Tunnels and the Metropolitan Highway System.

The deal included language about financial accountability, requiring MassDOT to produce written reports on its funding of Troop E and authorizing the agency to audit state police requests for reimbursement.

"MassDOT agrees to provide the State Police with a written report demonstrating the approved funding for Troop E operations for the following fiscal year," the agreement says. "MassDOT agrees to provide this report within 60 days prior to the beginning of each fiscal year. The State Police agrees that MassDOT may review and/or audit any and all documents or other materials that form the basis for reimbursement under this MOU."

On May 4, MassLive requested copies of those reports and audits -- and was met with radio silence. The state public records law requires agencies to formally approve or deny requests within ten business days, but MassDOT has still not issued any such communication to MassLive.

Under the public records law, records created or maintained by state agencies are presumed public with limited exemptions, including some personnel information and "investigatory materials necessarily compiled out of the public view by law enforcement or other investigatory officials" whose release would compromise ongoing law enforcement operations.

But financial and budget documents are typically public, and are the exact type of documents the law is designed to illuminate, said Common Cause Massachusetts Director Pam Wilmot, whose organization helped write the state's 2016 update to its public records law.

"It's our government. We need to be able to hold it accountable and see what action has been taken on our behalf," Wilmot said last month in an interview. "Financial records are perhaps the most clear and obvious information that is in the public interest [to be disclosed.]"

After MassLive published a story in May on the delays, the agency did release records of its state police funding, but not about the specific overtime program at the center of the scandal. MassDOT referred MassLive to Massachusetts State Police for that information, which has still not been released.