Posted: | December 13, 2022 09:11 AM |
---|---|
From: | Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill |
To: | All Senate members |
Subject: | Ensuring Effective Use of State Grants |
In the near future, I will reintroduce Senate Bill 250 of last session that will require Commonwealth-awarded grants to contain strong and detailed provisions to ensure taxpayer funds are committed only to projects with clearly delineated grantee commitments and obligations, and provide claw-back authority for recapturing surplus /excess taxpayer provided funds. In November of 2017, the Office of the Auditor General issued the results of an audit of a $10 million dollar state grant from Department of Economic and Community Development. Among the audit findings were the absences of a claw-back provision in the agreement requiring the Commonwealth to be the payer of last resort, and provisions that state money must be used only after all privately raised funds have been expended. In fact, this audit found a surplus of $2.5 million dollars, none of which was refunded to taxpayers. The audit concluded that state agencies need to improve their exercise of due diligence in the awarding and monitoring of state grants, and recoupment of taxpayer dollars in the case of a surplus of funds. My legislation implements several of the Auditor General’s recommended reforms, including:
In addition, this legislation will ensure:
These measures will help ensure our taxpayer dollars are spent prudently and responsibly on worthy projects and surplus funds are recouped. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation.
Previous cosponsors include Senators Pittman, Aument, Mensch, and J. Ward. |
Introduced as SB567