MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin's first progress report on stimulus spending is less than two weeks away, and those looking to keep funds transparent and accounted for said no detail is too small to overlook.

State officials said they won't know for sure whether stimulus projects are coming through as scheduled until the release of a progress report on Oct. 10. Until then, project numbers aren't yet concrete.

At the Legislature's audit committee hearing Wednesday, the Legislative Audit Bureau presented its findings on the quality of state highway projects from 2007 to 2008.

While the audit doesn't directly apply to stimulus projects, state officials said that some of the questions raised Wednesday are just precursors to the questions that will be asked next month.

"There are many findings that we have, some big and some small. I think this has their attention though, and you heard Sen. (Kathleen) Vinehout in her opening remarks say a lot of changes have been made in the 2009 construction season," said Janice Mueller, of the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau.

The audit touched upon the thickness of concrete pavement and ways to test the quality of the concrete. It also addressed the optimal combination of state workers and outside consultants for projects paid for with stimulus money.

"We are proud of the job we have done and the standards we have tried to maintain. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement, and we take the audit report as an opportunity to reaffirm our attention to detail and make improvements," said Rory Rhinesmith, of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Former state auditor Dale Cattanach is handling the state's stimulus accountability. He was also a part of Wednesday's hearing.

"It's a wakeup call for all the agencies to make sure that they are all compliant with the requirements of the stimulus act," Cattanach said.

Cattanach said there will be hairsplitting on a much larger scale when accounting for the several new projects that have come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.