An audit that sharply criticized the Department of Natural Resources’ support of a private game wardens conference in 2007 had its origins in my colleague David Shaffer’s reporting back in May. The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor found the DNR improperly spent nearly $300,000 and violated state law against private fund-raising by state employees.

That audit was one of three released Thursday by the Legislative Auditor, all of them targeting the financial practices of state agencies.

One employee of the Department of Labor and Industry was overpaid up to $9,500 in excessive mileage and falsified $880 worth of meal receipts, an audit of that agency found. The agency also made a $55,572 workers compensation payment to the wrong recipient, and lacked “sufficient documentation to support about $70,000 of purchases made with state purchasing cards.” “The department’s internal controls over workers’ compensation assessments and claims, payroll, and administrative expenditures were not adequate,” the report concluded. “As a result, the department was not able to ensure it safeguarded assets, accurately paid employees and vendors in accordance with management’s authorization, produced reliable financial information, and complied with finance-related legal requirements.”

In its response, the agency vowed to recover the overpaid expenses, has already fixed the incorrect payment and said it would switch to electronic images of purchasing card documentation, among other measures.

Finally, an audit of the Department of Health found 19 problems with its internal procedures, among them, inadequate safeguards to ensure the proper handling and record-keeping for $99 million in fees collected over a two year period. The agency concurred with almost all of the auditor’s recommendations.

The Legislative Auditor’s office is a non-partisan agency, appointed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, whose mission is to undertake audits and studies that “strengthen accountability and promote good management in government,” according to its web site.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Government spends your money, Public records. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.