Two top officials at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. today said loan-tracking problems at the agency are serious but fixable, adding that the problems “should not discredit the many successes WEDC has achieved.”
“The lapses we’ve identified are isolated to the documentation and reporting processes within WEDC’s financial operations, and there is no evidence that they affect the functional aspects of WEDC’s programs,” Interim CEO Reed Hall and COO Ryan Murray said in a memo to the WEDC Board of Directors that was shared with reporters.
The memo says the agency has “uncovered no irregularities that signal misconduct of any type.”
It also details measures being taken to rectify the public-private agency’s financial missteps, including hiring consultants from accounting firm Schenck SC and the Financial Institution Products Corporation to review its financial practices and loan portfolio management. The memo also says the agency continues to cooperate with a Legislative Audit Bureau review of WEDC operations.
It also provides more details on WEDC’s loan portfolio, which included more than $8 million in outstanding loans that the agency failed to track.
