ALBANY — The nonprofit behind the annual Albany gathering of the state’s minority legislators spent more on catering in 2016 than it gave out in youth scholarships, according to new financial statements.

The filings show the New York Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators spent $25,000 on catering as part of its fundraising expenses that year, but awarded just $21,090 in scholarships. That catering amount did not include an additional $128,000 for food service during its annual scholarship gala.

The group filed two years of financial documents in early January after receiving a letter in early January from the state attorney general’s office noting it was delinquent in its filings.

The group is the nonprofit arm of the state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus. Its focus is supporting education and leadership opportunities for minority youth, according to its mission statement. The gala, held each February at its caucus weekend, is meant to raise money for those scholarships.

The filings, covering the 2016 and 2017 financial years, showed a reduction in both fundraising at the gala and the amount of scholarships it granted in those years. The filing included federal 990 forms required by the IRS as well as audited financial statements.

The association’s chairwoman, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker, did not return calls seeking comment. Walker has repeatedly refused to comment on the group’s finances or why it was repeatedly late in filing its paperwork with the state and the IRS. (Walker was not the head of the group during the years covered by the statements.)

Attorney General Letitia James’ office acknowledged in February it had received the group’s filings after sending the letter, but said at the time the filings were not publicly available then because it was working with the group to clear up some discrepancies. It is still not clear what those issues were.

The new filings reveal that the group’s management expenses rose as its scholarship grants decreased.

The group awarded $35,745 in scholarships in 2015. That fell to $17,078 in 2017. Meanwhile its management expenses went astronomically from $855 to $109,915 during that same time, according to the filings.

A key driver in that category was $80,000 in what are listed as miscellaneous expenses for its fundraising gala in 2017. There is no indication in the paperwork what those expenses were.

The group ended its 2016 financial year with just $285 in cash despite raising more than $500,000 at its annual gala for at least the fifth straight year, according to its financial statements. The next year, it had nearly $67,000 on hand.

The group’s treasurer, Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, told the Times Union in December he did not recall signing a single check for a scholarship last year. Pretlow did not return a call for comment on Monday.

A 2017 Times Union investigation raised questions about how the 34-year-old charity spends the money it raises. In that report, the group vowed to increase the percentage of its revenues that it spends on scholarships.

In the nonprofit's official program for its 2015 retreat, then-Chairwoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, an Assemblywoman from Buffalo, stated that "we intend to double the amount of scholarship funds given to students in their respective districts."

Walker, her successor, implied in a December 2018 statement to the New York Post that the association was struggling to carry out its mission.

“When I became chair of the organization in October 2017, there were many financial deficits, but I am proud to say that after alternative protocols and procedures were put in place, the organization is fiscally sound,” Walker told the Post.

The Brooklyn Democrat refused to talk with a Times Union reporter after an event at its caucus gathering in Albany last month.

Charities are generally supposed to spend at least a third of their revenue on their stated mission, according to Charity Navigator, a watchdog group.

From 2012 to 2016, the group took in more than $2.6 million, the vast majority through its annual weekend retreat, according to its IRS filings.

Nowhere on the nonprofit’s paperwork or its website does it state who received the scholarship money, when it was awarded, who picks the scholarship recipients, or the criteria used to award the money.