WEDC Audit Notes Questionable Spending Of State Funds

Working my way through the full text of the jaw-dropping state audit of the operations at the Scott Walker-conceived-and-created Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

Virtually every page documents an agency not meeting rules, standards or law or failing to provide documentation, accurate data or procedural follow-through - - as state funds were disbursed willy-nilly.

I'll call attention to various sections over the next few days, but this caught my eye today among many questionable purchases of gifts, drinks, hotels, travel, personal and other items on pps. 71-72:

We found that WEDC cardholders did not indicate the purpose for 79 transactions totaling $46,100, or 56.0 percent of the 141 purchasing card transactions we reviewed.

Because purchasing card transactions typically do not involve preapproval, maintaining adequate oversight depends on the adequacy of supervisory review and subsequent audits to identify inappropriate purchases.

Both of these controls are less effective when a transaction’s purpose is not documented. Among the transactions that lacked a description of their purpose were:

$1,789 for six season tickets to UW-Madison football games.