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Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation |
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May 2013 | |
Report Highlights | |
2011 Wisconsin Act 7 created the Wisconsin Economic Development
Corporation (WEDC) as the State’s lead economic development
organization. WEDC, which is not a state agency, became fully
operational in
In fiscal year Statutes require the Legislative Audit Bureau to biennially conduct a financial audit of WEDC and a program evaluation audit of WEDC’s economic development programs. As part of our effort, we analyzed:
Program Administration
In
WEDC did not have sufficient policies to administer its grant, loan, and tax credit programs effectively, including some statutorily required policies. It had no policies for determining how to handle delinquent loan amounts. In other instances, WEDC did not consistently follow statutes or its existing policies when making awards. We reviewed files for 64 awards that WEDC made in FY 2011-12 and found that WEDC made some awards to ineligible recipients, for ineligible projects, and for amounts that exceeded limits specified in its policies.
WEDC lacked invoices or other contractually
required documentation
showing that authorized costs
were incurred for 7 of 29 grant and
loan awards that we reviewed. In
addition, four contracts executed
through the Jobs Tax Credit
program allocated four businesses
a total of
Statutes require WEDC’s governing
board to stipulate contractually
that recipients of grants and loans
of
Our review included 14 grant and
loan contracts of at least
Program Results and Accountability
Statutes require WEDC’s governing board to establish goals and expected results for each of its programs, monitor the contractually specified performance of recipients of financial awards, and report publicly on program results.
Expected results were not
established for 10 of WEDC’s
30 programs in
Statutes require the governing
board to verify the performance
information reported by a sample
of grant and loan recipients. From
Statutes require the governing
board to report to the Legislature
annually on each economic development
program administered,
including information on expected
and actual program outcomes.
The report WEDC submitted in
Financial and Personnel Management
Although statutes provide WEDC
with flexibility to conduct its
operations, WEDC must ensure
accountability for, and effective
management of, its taxpayer funds.
In
WEDC did not have policies for
staff to use to purchase goods
and services, including those that
would increase the likelihood
of receiving desired goods and
services at a reasonable price.
WEDC also did not have sufficient
purchasing card policies. The
purpose of
WEDC did not develop its own
detailed personnel policies until
Governance
WEDC had incomplete policies pertaining to staff acceptance of gifts from businesses and other organizations. In addition, WEDC and its governing board have not always complied with statutory requirements for reporting to the Legislature on WEDC’s economic development programs and operations.
In
Recommendations
We include recommendations for WEDC to:
We include recommendations that WEDC’s governing board:
We include recommendations for
WEDC’s governing board to report
to the Joint Legislative Audit
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