Gov. Charlie Baker has run up a $1.1 million tab of high-priced hourly rates, airfares, meals and hotel bills on a private Chicago-based auditing firm — keeping the critical RMV investigation under his control, when critics say he could have handed off the inquiry to the state’s elected auditor or inspector general.

“I don’t see why the state should hire $300/hour outside auditors to do what we already have a state auditor to do,” Beacon Hill Institute President David Tuerck said.

“It is wasteful when we have a state auditor not auditing,” MassFiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Craney said. “We have consistently stated, the state elected auditor should audit government agencies when audits are needed.”

The state has paid $1.1 million so far for Grant Thornton’s investigation of the Registry of Motor Vehicles through Sept. 7, according to invoices from MassDOT. Despite the heavy outlay, Grant Thornton added a disclaimer to its final report, saying: “Our services do not constitute an audit, review, or compilation in accordance with relevant auditing and attestation standards.”

The report was released late on Friday — the notorious Friday afternoon news dump designed to avoid heavy scrutiny. Wednesday, a MassDOT spokeswoman initially demanded the Herald submit a formal public records request for the audit’s billing information —which would have triggered a 10-day delay — but later relented and released general billing information. The bills lacked breakdowns within categories — such as which hotels or restaurants the auditors frequented.

The invoices include $295 hourly fees, totaling $1 million; $58,395 for forensic technology; $5,560 on airfare; $2,798 on ground transport; $11,550 on hotels and $2,671 on meals. That tab could climb as the auditing firm bills the state for subsequent weeks of work.

“This looks like an exercise in closing the barn door after the horse has been stolen,” Tuerck said. “We already know what went wrong at the RMV, and we don’t need another investigation to establish the facts. We should be investing money in improving the management of the agency rather than in rehashing how the agency failed in its responsibilities.”

Baker and Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack hired Grant Thornton in June as the scandal of deadly incompetence at the Registry of Motor Vehicles exploded after seven motorcyclists’ deaths. The administration admitted the RMV had failed to suspend the license of trucker Volodymyr Zhukovskyy after a Connecticut OUI charge.

State Auditor Suzanne Bump blasted Baker’s “duck-and-cover” reaction to the deadly failures at the RMV Tuesday, saying she will review the final Grant Thornton report and determine her next audit of the Registry.

Hillary Chabot contributed to this report.