Republicans are unhappy that Democrats on the State Audit Committee blocked their effort to have the state auditor expand its financial probe of the Colorado Energy Office’s inability to track $252 million spent over the last six years.
Energy Office takes heat.
On Tuesday, Republicans on the committee wanted to allow the state auditor an additional eight hours of audit time to examine the Colorado Energy Office’s books. Democrats, who control the legislature, voted “no.”
The Audit Committee chair, Rep. Angela Williams, D-Denver, said she didn’t think it was necessary. When the audit was first released, she said the acting director, Kevin Patterson, owned up to the problems, promised to have them corrected by July 1 and to provide an update to the committee before the legislature adjourns in mid May.
“We did not have a department coming in and giving us lip service,” Williams said, adding she was impressed by Patterson.
A recently released blistering audit of the energy office covered four years of Gov. Bill Ritter’s administration, and two years of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration. Both are Democrats.
Williams said she felt that the Republican lawmakers on the committee were particularly interested in going after Ritter, who frequently tangled with the GOP over his emphasis on renewable energy. But Republicans say they just want answers.
“Just one month ago, Democrats were willing to spend $100,000 to audit a $5,000 discretionary fund, but when it comes to the misuse of more than $250 million, the Democrats refused to allow eight hours of additional investigation,” said Rep. Dan Nordberg, R-Colorado Springs. “That’s absurd.”
He was referring to a proposal by Democrats last month to investigate spending by Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler. That motion died on a tie vote in the Audit Committee.
During various committee hearings since the energy audit was first released, some Democrats have pushed back, arguing the constant turnover in the Energy Office since Hickenlooper was sworn in in January 2011 could be one reason the staff couldn’t explain how the money was spent. And Ritter has noted that the office, which received millions in stimulus dollars, passed federal audits that found no problems.
Michelle Colin, a legislative audit manager who oversaw the recent energy-office audit, told members of ag and energy committees reviewing the audit that the audit team bases its results on documentation, not interviews with people who have left state government.
“We do not say in the audit report that they misspent these funds and we didn’t say they were not spent cost effectively,” she said. “We said they were not able to provide us documentation to show us they were spent cost effectively.”
Besides Nordberg, here’s what the other Republican Audit Committee members said:
Sen. Steve King of Grand Junction: “The Audit Committee is a decidedly non-partisan committee, so the fact that we can’t look further into $252 million of unaccountable spending based on a party-line vote is unacceptable and causes me to question my Democratic colleagues’ commitment to uncovering fraud and waste.”
Sen. Owen Hill of Colorado Springs: “Our duty to taxpayers is to look into this further. Four Democrats voted against increased transparency today and showed that partisanship is more important to them than accountability to taxpayers.”
Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling: “We requested a mere eight hours of the State Auditor’s time to examine whether there was fraud or abuse. For four partisan Democrats to vote against this small amount of accountability undermines the trust placed in the Audit Committee by the citizens of Colorado.”