A report from the Arizona Auditor General is making five recommendations for the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System after finding a business deal between an administrator and former board members could have jeopardized fiduciary obligations.
The report found that the former system administrator and two board members had business-related conflicts of interest that they failed to properly disclose.
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Arizona State Representative and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman David Cook (R-Globe) urged the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to take immediate corrective action to address critical public safety risks.
This follows a new Arizona Department of Transportation performance audit conducted by the Arizona Auditor General, finding alarming issues with Motor Vehicle Divisions’ (MVD) oversight of third-party service providers.
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A new report from the Arizona Auditor General reveals that private companies authorized by the state’s Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) have issued credentials or documents to people who were unqualified, including at least one foreign national.
The Auditor General warned that “consistently” allowing vehicle titles, driver licenses, and identification cards to unauthorized individuals or entities will increase numbers of “unsafe drivers, vehicle and identity theft, fraud, and terrorism.”
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State Representatives Matt Gress (R-Phoenix) and Beverly Pingerelli (R-Peoria) announced Wednesday that they are seeking answers from the Gadsden Elementary School District (GESD) after it did not implement some financial accountability measures.
“Allowing this practice to continue some 30 months after they were caught is troubling,” said Gress and Pingerelli in a joint statement. “The audits from the Arizona Auditor General are consequential reviews and are not to be mocked with inaction. These audits are one of the few independent tools the Legislature has to measure efficiency, effectiveness, and legal compliance in the state’s largest annual investment, K-12 education. The Legislature, and the public, are due answers from Gadsden Elementary.”
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It is National Sunshine Week, which celebrates transparency in government, including creating awareness about requesting information from governments through FOIA public record requests. In Arizona, there are two tools provided by state agencies which allow anyone to look online at some of the government spending by state and local governments. Although it is a minimal amount of data, it reveals some missteps and waste.
The Arizona State Treasurer manages AZCheckbook.com, which provides information about funding the state gets from all sources, including the federal government, and how much it is distributing to schools, cities, and towns. The Arizona Department of Administration operates OpenBooks.AZ.gov, which provides checkbook-level information about individual state expenditures, including on the city and county level.
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After an investigation by the Arizona Auditor General into alleged financial mismanagement at Higley Unified School District in Gilbert, a grand jury indicted four people for fraud. Dr. Denise Birdwell, a former superintendent of both Higley and Scottsdale Unified School Districts, was indicted on 18 felony counts related to reportedly misusing $6 million of public monies, including conspiring to get around school district rules in order to make sure Higley’s $2,557,125 contract went to a certain vendor. Birdwell’s domestic partner, Hartwell Hunnicutt, and two men from the vendor, Gary Aller and Steven Nielsen, were indicted on related felonies.
State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who served on the Higley school board from 2013-2015 while much of this took place under Birdwell, said he was attacked and stonewalled by district administrators as he and another board member fought to get to the bottom of serious concerns and suspicions that many people had at the time.
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