A much-anticipated internal audit of Dixie Electric Membership Corp. has found that at least two employees were given use of a Gulf Coast condominium owned by one of the nonprofit utility’s vendors.
That and other findings come as the utility prepares to go before the state’s Public Service Commission this week.
New DEMCO CEO Randy Pierce said the audit did not find the condo “perk,” which may have involved other employees unknown to management, resulted in favorable treatment for the vendor or that the offer of the condo was “an ongoing practice.”
Vendors, some of whom have long relationships with the utility and have hired some of its former employees, play an important and lucrative role in the operations and spending of Louisiana’s largest nonprofit rural electrical cooperative.
In 2015 and 2016, for instance, DEMCO’s top five highest compensated contractors earned a combined $14.5 million to $14.7 million annually from the ratepayer-supported utility, IRS nonprofit filings show.
Pierce said the employees’ use of the condo is a violation of DEMCO ‘s current…
