South Carolina legislators have funneled nearly $2-million in three years through public universities to nonprofit organizations, reports The Post and Courier, in Charleston.

Several legislators have sent such money to groups where they work and receive compensation. Officials channel money by including funds from the state budget in the universities’ appropriations, which the schools then hand over to specified charities.

“It looks like a way to camouflage money to do something they can’t do or don’t want to do directly, something that might be politically embarrassing,” said John Crangle, director of the government watchdog group Common Cause South Carolina.

Rep. David Mack, a Democrat from North Charleston, has sent $700,000 through South Carolina State University to the Palmetto Center for Advocacy, a health education group based in Columbia. Mr. Mack is currently the group’s outreach director and previously served as its interim director; he declined to say how much the group pays him.

Other legislators have sent money to groups on whose boards they serve as well as to organizations to which they have no direct connection.