Audit findings debated

The audit committee had been scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the latest state audit of WEDC, made public in May. The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau reviewed 133 awards and found for a third consecutive biennial audit that the agency did not annually verify job-related information as required by law.

Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature created the agency in July 2011 to drive job creation in the state. Between then and September 2016, there were 192 awards that had been awarded and run their course, including 24 with expected job creation or retention results, the audit found.

The audit found the agency couldn’t be certain about the number of jobs created or retained as a result of those awards. It also found the agency can’t be certain about the accuracy of jobs information in its online database because it didn’t verify the information submitted by tax credit recipients, and didn’t contractually require grant and loan recipients to submit detailed information on job retention and creation.

Hogan said WEDC is close to signing an agreement with the Department of Workforce Development that will provide independent verification of its job creation data, which auditors recommended.