On Tuesday, the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) released the findings of its audit of Minnesota’s Office of the Secretary of State (OSS). Steve Simon, a Democrat, is the current Minnesota secretary of state.
In its findings regarding the OSS, the OLA found that the office “generally complied” with the financial and legal requirements prescribed to the office. However, the OLA’s report also “identified instances of noncompliance and an internal control weakness related to grant expenditures.”
“The Office of the Secretary of State did not adequately monitor its grants and did not comply with monitoring requirements in state law,” the report found.
According to the report, the OLA’s audit of the OSS covered a period that “went from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2022.”
During the three-year examination period, the Office of the Secretary of State distributed 313 grants totaling $11,357,346. These grants, sent to cities and counties across Minnesota, provided funding for absentee voting preparation, disinfectant supplies, absentee ballot drop boxes, voting equipment, and similar items.
Of the 313 grants that the OSS issued, 41 were tested by the OLA. In its 41 tests, the OLA found 15 grants in which the grant recipients “did not include invoices or receipts
with their submitted financial report.”
Furthermore, the OLA report stated that since these recipients “did not include invoices or receipts, the office was unable to determine whether the grantees spent grant funds on eligible expenses or whether the financial reports were accurate.”
“One reason the office did not adequately monitor its grants or comply with the monitoring requirements in state law was that the office did not establish policies and procedures for monitoring how grantees spent the grant funds,” the report says.
As a result, the OLA made three recommendations to the Office of the Secretary of State:
- “The Office of the Secretary of State should review invoices or receipts and financial reports for all grants, and document its review of those items.”
- “The Office of the Secretary of State should establish internal policies and procedures for monitoring grants to ensure its compliance with state law, and grantees’ compliance with grant contract requirements.”
- “The Office of the Secretary of State should revise its grant contracts and financial report formats to clarify the requirements for invoices or receipts.”
In response to these recommendations, Secretary of State Steve Simon said his office “accepts the finding and agrees with the recommendation.”
Additionally, Secretary Simon stated that the OSS has begun the process of putting together a “grants management system.” Secretary Simon said the new system “will provide for a more efficient process to receive all required documents from our local partners and for OSS staff to track, review, and maintain the documents.”
In addition to the lack of grant monitoring, the OLA found that Minnesota’s Office of the Secretary of State accepted two gifts during the three-year examination period.
One gift was $20,000 from the Minnesota Vikings for personal protective equipment (PPE). The other gift was $1.5 million from the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR).
The CEIR is a nonprofit that combats “election denialism” and “antidemocratic sentiment.” In addition to being run by an attorney who has been described as a “hard-core leftist,” CEIR received $69.5 million from Mark Zuckerburg in 2020.
According to state law, the gifts from the Minnesota Vikings and the CEIR must first be approved by the commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget. The OLA’s report states that, “We confirmed that the commissioner authorized the acceptance of each gift, and we reviewed all expenditures for compliance with the donors’ intended uses of the funds. We found no issues.”
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
