WEDC Fails to Track Recipients Spending of Loans and Grants
Monday, March 9th, 2015 -- 9:46 AM
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) -After saying repeatedly last year that they had shored up their shaky financial controls, officials at Wisconsin's flagship jobs agency have disclosed that they again failed to follow state law and track how recipients of state loans and grants were spending tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money.The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. sent reminders and past-due notices to award recipients in January 2014, but it did not follow up on them until more than a year later, according to a letter written by Hannah Renfro, WEDC's top lawyer, to its board of directors late last month. The notices said recipients needed to provide schedules prepared by an accountant that detailed their expenditures.
The staff presented "preliminary results" to agency management in late January, and 77 past-due notices regarding the expenditures were sent to 67 companies on Feb. 13. The value of the loans and grants reflected in those notices was $43.3 million. There were no delays in sending out notices for loan payments or performance measures such as job creation and retention.
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