Conclusion of a two-part story
By Charles Hallman
Staff Writer
CBM Executive Director Lester Collins – MSR file photo
The Council on Black Minnesotans (CBM), like most state-funded agencies, is subject to regular auditing by the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA). According to the OLA, the council has been audited four times since 1996. Each audit found problems that required corrective action.
OLA auditor Jim Riebe explained that there are usually two reasons an agency might be audited multiple times: 1) complaints against the agency, or 2) corrective actions from a previous audit were not satisfactorily completed.
When asked if either of these led to the CBM’s audits, Riebe said he couldn’t say — he only completed one of them. He did explain that at least 12 state departments are audited annually, while others, including the four state ethnic councils, are audited either on a three- or five-year cycle.
The first CBM audit, released in 1997, examined the period from July 1992 through June 1996, and found that the council “did not deposit some gift receipts timely” and “did not follow state procedures for certain special purchased services.”
In the next three audits, the OLA found a similar pattern that needed corrective action:
1998-2001 — Seven key findings included not appropriately administering the council’s financial activities; an employee who may have been overpaid $5,500 by submitting fraudulent work hours; and four board members who inappropriately received a total of $1,430 in per diem money.
2002-2005 — Nine findings that included timesheets not always reflecting actual hours worked and two board members who were overpaid $110 in per diems when they claimed reimbursement for attending two meetings in one day. Also, the audit concluded that two prior audit findings were “not resolved,” one was “partially resolved,” and six were “fully resolved,” but the council had yet recovered $1,430 in overpayments.
2005-2008 — The council “did not have adequate internal controls over its payroll process”; expenses were incurred without adequate documentation to “justify” it. Eight of nine prior audit findings were resolved, including inconsistencies between time and leave records and payroll expenditures. Previous overpayments had been recovered from council members, and findings of noncompliance in contracts and grants were resolved. But the council “did not consistently review a key payroll report as recommended in the prior audit report.”
None of the other state ethnic councils have been audited as many times as the CBM. The Chicano Latino Affairs Council was audited in 1999 and 2002, and the Council on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans in 1997, 1999 and 2004.
“Some of the audit issues that we were cited for, and really look at what they really were, much of it is attributable to the fact that we have been a very active organization,” explained CBM Executive Director Lester Collins during a recent interview with the MSR. The council “explained satisfactorily those concerns” raised by the OLA audits, he said, adding as an example that the group sometimes was not “advised properly” in handling purchases.
“I am not minimizing it,” said Collins, “but if you look at the explanations with many of these findings, I think people would see [it differently]. I’ve been trying to get the state to realize that it’s hard for a small vendor to put out…and then have to go 30 days [before getting paid], and we are trying to help the vendor.
“This is not what you are seeing when you look at an audit. So it looks like we’re irresponsible [and] don’t care…and I can tell [you] that none of the situations have been an open violation of something.
“We do a King holiday [event], a tobacco program, grants that we’ve done — even with the Humanities dollars and grants, I guarantee you that you probably see some paperwork not returned as fully, or some grant that had a certain [deadline] date but we didn’t get the paperwork [turned in on time] that’s going to look [negative on an audit].
“Does that mean that we were just terribly irresponsible? No. It means that, in some respects, if we had more staffing… I don’t have an accountant on staff.
“I don’t think people realize how small an agency we are,” explained Collins of the full-time CBM staff: “myself, [research analyst] Roger [Banks] and Rebecca [Johnson, senior office and administrative specialist]. “Natalie [Johnson Lee] heads a whole other effort [as executive director of the Minnesotan African/African American Tobacco Education Network].
“We have decreased or have not repeated many of the concerns that [the OLA] has,” Collins said, adding that they now have “a team of folk that review and look at our financials.”
The Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC) has appropriated a two-year $250,000 arts and culture grant to the council through the Legacy Amendment. Before the amendment’s passage a couple of years ago, the CBM “made the case” to state lawmakers to include the Black community and other communities of color in allocating Legacy funds, Collins recalls.
The money is “to benefit the community that the council represents,” said MHC Director of Programs Casey Bemarais.
“It is an excellent relationship,” said Collins, adding that the MHC is not telling the CBM how the funds are to be spent. Bemarais said there is approximately $150,000 remaining; Collins said information will be publicly announced in April on how to apply for the remaining funds.
“These dollars are for essentially new [and] not previously existing arts and culture [programs],” Collins said.
With a “sunset review” bill currently moving through the Minnesota House of Representatives that if passed, could greatly affect all four ethnic councils, some are concerned that internal conflicts reported between former and current CBM board members, along with frequent inconsistencies in financial matters pointed out in the four OLA audits, might count against the council in deciding its fate.
“This is a governor-appointed board,” Collins responded to such concerns, adding that he recently brought suggestions to Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton’s office “for looking…more strategically at the individuals that are appointed to serve on the board, [their] time availability, their engagement to the community,” to fill the current four vacancies on the board.
“Our responsibility, our primary focus, is a community focus,” pledged Collins.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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