Eight more days
Elections sure do bring out the silly in some people. Oregon secretary of state Kate Brown picks today to release a hard-hitting audit:
A Secretary of State investigation of Mt. Hood Community College’s (MHCC) wilderness leadership program inventory identified missing equipment and questionable reimbursements. MHCC had already initiated an internal investigation, but asked the Secretary of State’s Audits Division for assistance.Using MHCC purchase records, auditors identified about $13,000 in equipment that was missing from campus. Among those missing purchases, about $1,500 appeared to match personal gear requested by students. However, the college did not receive reimbursement for personal gear purchases even though emails indicated some students may have directly reimbursed instructors.
Auditors also noted instances of travel and purchase reimbursements that were in excess of the per diem rate, appeared contrary to policies, lacked sufficient detail, gave personal rewards benefits that may violate state policies, and paid instructors for purchases paid by a MHCC credit card. Secretary Brown has also submitted the report to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission for possible ethics violations.
Amazing how this all timed out. By Friday she'll be counting the M&M's in the bowl at the reception desk at the State Archives Building. Somebody's been eating all the green ones!
| Posted at 3:17 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (7)
As the saying goes "too little and too late".
Posted by Usual Kevin | October 29, 2012 3:27 PM
Vote for the higher integrity candidate that won't waste Oregon taxpayer money counting the M & Ms.
Vote Knute Buehler!
Posted by Brian | October 29, 2012 3:43 PM
Gee, it almost sounds like the current regime is a little scared. if she loses myabe she and Diane Linn can open afirm lobbying firm
Posted by Steve | October 29, 2012 5:24 PM
Well, Vera used to like to say that there were different colors of candy.
Posted by Old Zeb | October 29, 2012 6:01 PM
wow.....13,000 dollars....
Steal 2 million from the dept of revenue and have a nice day...but pilfer 13k from a community college and it's the firing squad for you.....
Talk about screwed up priorities.....
Posted by thaddeus | October 29, 2012 7:06 PM
Kate Brown touts her role as "Auditor in Chief." She "audited" the Oregon Department of Revenue 3 times in the past 2 years and failed to see any problem with the way the Department was issuing huge undocumented refunds. The Department in 2012 paid a $2.1 million refund to a Salem woman who had never before reported more than $15,000 of income. The folks at TurboTax, not the government, revealed this fraud. The state employees even manually overrode the computer-generated warning about this refund. Now, the government refuses to disclose how many other huge, fraudulent refunds it has paid.
Kate Brown's ads claim that her audits have "identified $180 million in savings" or that they have "found $180 million in savings." She also claims to have "saved" $64 for every $1 spent on auditing. These are all phoney numbers. Her auditors have merely suggested to agencies that they do things diffently in a way that the auditors think might save money. Kate Brown is not enforcing her suggestions, and there is no proof of any savings even if the suggestions are sdfsdfsimplemented.
As the Associated Press reported on October 24: "In some circumstances, the secretary of state can have the state withhold 10 percent of the money owed to local governments if they won't correct problems identified in an audit, or she can recommend that the governor withhold pay from state officials who drag their feet.
Brown acknowledged that she couldn't say exactly how much money was saved or recovered as a result of her audits, but she said her office has stepped up efforts to follow up on recommendations."
Note that she has never recommended withholding funds from state agencies and have never used her authority to order funds withheld from local governments.
Posted by Ralphie Buffalo | October 30, 2012 4:32 AM
If Obama is reelected he'll subsidize the replacement of those green M&Ms. If Kate Brown is reelected there is no hope for a Republican, however outstanding, in a state that is going to elect a Democrat, however dismal.
Posted by sally | October 30, 2012 5:54 AM