State auditors say Wisconsin’s new economic development agency failed to track many of its grants and loans, and even broke the law when it handed out others.
The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau report said the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) lacked sufficient policies to administer its grant and loan programs and it had no policies for handling delinquent loans. The grant recipients tracked by auditors turned in fewer than half of the reports they’re required to by contract.
WEDC also gave nearly a million dollars in grants under a Jobs Tax Credit program for job creation and employee training that occurred before the contracts were awarded.
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Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) took particular issue with that finding, saying WEDC did not have the discretion to ignore the law: “This isn’t up to them to decide whether or not to follow the statutes. The statutes are not a set of helpful hints.”
Republicans who run the legislature called the findings “major problems.” WEDC director Reed Hall, who was just appointed to the job full time in January, said his agency was already taking steps to address the issues.
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