State auditor to look at Emerging Technology Fund

State Auditor John Keel will perform an audit on the state’s Emerging Technology Fund to see if the money is being used and distributed properly.

State Auditor John Keel said Wednesday that his office will review the monitoring of the funds, compliance of the companies and universities receiving the taxpayer money, and internal controls over awards.

“It is a significant amount of money. The state has a lot invested in this and in the outcomes,” Keel said.

Most of the decision-making behind the technology fund’s awards, as well as the names of investors in chosen companies, has been shrouded in secrecy.

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Keel said Wednesday that his office will start an audit Dec. 1, and he hopes to have it completed by June.

“There’s been a lot of focus and attention on this in the press; all of those things brought us to the conclusion that we need to initiate an audit of the Emerging Technology Fund,” Keel said.

The fund has not been independently evaluated since its inception. The law creating the fund did not provide for audits, but Keel has broad discretion to evaluate state government programs.

Reports of the state auditor are public and outline weaknesses and failures of state programs in adhering to state law or accountability standards. Lawmakers study the results closely as they shape legislation and decide how much money to allocate to programs.

In a memo dated Tuesday and sent to key lawmakers who serve on the state audit committee, Keel said the audit will determine whether the governor’s office disperses the technology fund grants in accordance with the law, monitors recipients “to help ensure that they comply with terms of the grant,” and determine whether the companies and the governor’s office “have controls to help ensure accountability for the use” of the funds.

What do you suppose are the odds of that? It sure would have been nice for all of this to have been done six months ago, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. See various posts here for some background.

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