The Legislative Audit Committee delivered one during its review routine agency audit, Which stressed concerns about the competence of individual commissioners and staff and outlined expenditures indicating a potential waste of government resources.
During a hearing on Monday afternoon, the committee focused on leadership and culture at the PSC, actions taken to correct violations of official travel policies, the consequences of an attempt to forge documents, and an explanation of what it means to “to.” deny”. “an exam.
The PSC has come under severe criticism since the Legislative Audit Division published the report, which came after a multi-year series of disputes that led lawmakers to question the agency’s effectiveness and ability to carry out its duties. Kyle Schmauch, director of communications for the GOP Senate, issued a post-hearing statement highlighting some of the lawmaker’s harshest words addressed to the agency, including Senator Tom McGillvray asking if it was appropriate for one the commissioner resigns, and the characterization of Senator John Esp an attempt to forge documents as “heinous conduct”.
Current PSC Chairman James Brown – who was not on the commission in the fiscal years examined at the time of the audit – was initially reluctant to reveal the identity of the commissioner responsible for booking a $ 1,400 first class ticket during the hearing in Washington, DC, but later asked committee members to direct questions about this particular transaction to PSC Vice Chairman Brad Johnson, who has served on the commission since 2015.
At the beginning of the meeting, Brown informed the Audit Committee that he had asked Johnson to surrender his government credit card for failure to adhere to a PSC policy that instructed commissioners to present travel plans to a specific employee prior to purchasing airline tickets. Johnson stuck to it, he said.
Johnson was the only current commissioner who was absent from the hearing in person or in person. (The audit covered fiscal years 2019 and 2020, when Roger Koopman and Bob Lake served on the commission. Neither of them appear to have been present at the meeting.)
“The most serious problems identified by the auditors reflect a lack of understanding and appreciation of the importance of internal controls and accounting practices by a handful of senior management. These failures are unacceptable and the Commission has taken disciplinary action and training as necessary. ”
The Chairman of the Public Service Commission, James Brown
Prior to his election to the PSC in 2014, Johnson served as Secretary of State of Montana for four years (2005-2009). Shortly thereafter, the Census Bureau announced that Montana’s population had grown enough to win a second representative in the US House of Representatives, Johnson told NBC Montana he is considering applying for that seat depending on how the districts are drawn.
Regarding the document forgery attempting to backdate a missing receipt form for an unrequired expense, Brown said there was no excuse for such dishonest conduct in personal or professional life and said he had the resignation of the agent in charge, Mandi Hinman who served as the administrator of the agency’s Centralized Services Division.
The Legislative Audit Division spent some time explaining to committee members what it meant to “refuse” an audit: essentially an affirmation that auditors were uncomfortable vouching for the accuracy of the agency’s books. The top auditor of the department informed the committee that the attempted forgery of documents was included in the decision to reject it.
“If you’re struggling with the idea of why a rejection occurs in these particular circumstances, it is mainly the accumulation of disparate insights and repetitive cycles we’ve seen at this agency that is really what pushed us over the edge . “Said the auditor and department head Angus Maciver.
Cindy Jorgenson, assistant chartered accountant for the Legislature, said chartered accountants had to go way back to find similar situations that led the department to reject an exam. It found that auditors refused to review residents’ escrow accounts from 1989 and 1992, administered by the Department of Family Services, as well as a 2013 audit of the state’s Beef Checkoff program under the Department of Livestock . It is a “very rare circumstance,” she said.
Brown spent much of the second half of the two-hour hearing outlining his and fellow classmate Jennifer Fielder’s efforts to get the agency on a new course and reassuring lawmakers that failing to comply with the agency’s internal controls was not doing its job affected his mission.
“As the auditors have found, the Commission clearly has to do,” said Brown in a statement on the audit. “The most serious problems identified by the auditors reflect a lack of understanding and appreciation of the importance of internal controls and accounting practices by a few senior executives. These failures are unacceptable and the Commission has initiated disciplinary action and training if necessary. “
Brown noted that other changes are in the works, including the creation of an executive director position and the recent hiring of a certified accountant. He said these and other changes would help address “tone and tenor at the top” concerns of the agency and put the PSC on a “glide path to success”. He also recognized the importance of individual commissioners complying with the guidelines already in place and taking personal responsibility for their actions.
Fielder said she worked 12-16 hours a day, six days a week, working on a strategic plan and otherwise helping with efforts to get the agency on the right track. She said she spent six consecutive weeks in Helena – she lives in Thompson Falls – to have direct contact with commissioners and staff.
Brown stressed during the hearing that he thanked the PSC staff for their hard work and the disappointment that the agency was embroiled in the current controversy. At one point he choked when he acknowledged the hard work of the PSC staff, whom he had reached out to individually to apologize for the situation.
Although lawmakers praised Brown for his willingness to face the problems encountered during the audit and thanked him for complying with them, they did hint that they can consider the audit report during the 2023 legislature when the time comes for a new one Set a budget for the PSC.
Senator Esp suggested that the subcommittee responsible for setting the PSC budget “could look closely when it comes to the wallets at the next meeting”.
Brown agreed to return to the committee in October to report on retraining efforts and changes to the agency’s policies and staffing structure. The committee has postponed acceptance of the examination to a later date.
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