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Audit Finds No Major Problems With GAB’s Work On Elections, Ethics Complaints

Republicans Have Recently Proposed Changes To Agency

GAB Director Kevin Kennedy
Wisconsin Public Television.

A state audit of the Government Accountability Board, the body that oversees elections in the state, has found no major problems.

The findings come as Republicans develop plans to overhaul the GAB because of its involvement in a secret investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and conservative groups. That probe was recently declared unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.

The audit by the Legislative Audit Bureau looked at how the GAB handled complaints about campaign spending, elections and ethics. It found that the board of retired judges that oversees the agency followed staff recommendations in 13 of the 21 investigations it conducted between 2010 and 2013.

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Republicans have often focused their complaints on staff at the seven-year-old agency, saying they have too much power over decisions made by the judges.

GAB Executive Director Kevin Kennedy said he was pleased with the audit, and that it gives the public and Legislature a window in how the board operates.

“It questions the staff. It doesn’t always agree with them. But it’s a very deliberative and engaged board in dealing with the highly charged and politically sensitive issues that come before it,” said Kennedy.

The report follows a more expansive audit released in December that did not recommend that the board comprised of retired judges be overhauled or dismantled. Instead, that audit suggested ways the Legislature could increase the board’s authority over elections and improve its operations.

Read the findings of the Legislative Audit Bureau here.