The Oregon Department of Transportation, charged by Gov. Kate Brown with having itself audited before the 2017 legislative session, has only a few months left to complete the task.

ODOT and the state’s Department of Administrative Services, which oversees procurement for most state agencies, have rejected two auditors in recent months. The first, Public Works, was the only applicant from a list of prequalified applicants DAS keeps. DAS was told to start over, this time with a full-blown request for proposals from outside the preapproved list. John Craig, who had contracted with ODOT to oversee bridge-building for several years, was chosen, this time from a pool of two (Public Works was the other).

But Craig’s former relationship with ODOT was a problem. So, too, was his stated desire to take over the agency at some point. Again, DAS withdrew the contract.

It’s going to take some fancy footwork to get an audit done before the Legislature gets down to business Feb. 1, 2017. Yet even if the state must seek applicants outside DAS’ prequalified list, it could be letting contracts in a couple of months. It seems unlikely that it would have to rethink the qualifications it seeks, having already had two chances to get it right.

For now, says Matthew Shelby, a DAS spokesman, his agency is sorting things out to decide what can be or should be done.

DAS should push to have the ODOT audit done. The state needs a transportation package from lawmakers, and getting one has been put off for too long. A transportation proposal before the 2015 Legislature died in the ruckus over the state’s clean fuels bill, and lawmakers didn’t even consider action in the 2016 session. If an ODOT audit is critical to passage of a bill in 2017, it’s time to hustle.