AUGUSTA — A legislative oversight panel is questioning financial activities of the Maine Turnpike, including purchases of $157,000 in gift certificates from hotel chains and restaurants.

The Government Oversight Committee today raised questions about that and other spending practices by the toll highway’s administrators.

A report to the committee identifies $157,000 in gift certificate purchased in 2005 and 2006 from various hotel chains and restaurants that were coded to the turnpike’s “Travel and Subsistence” expense category. The report says the certificates were donated to a variety of organizations – but there are no formal records of who received those donations.

The oversight panel’s chairman, Republican Sen. Roger Katz of Augusta, says public money’s at stake and the committee has an obligation to get some answers.