Minnesota’s Office of the Secretary of State needs to improve its oversight of grants to comply with state law, a newly released report says.
The Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) conducted a performance audit of Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office from January 2020 through December 2022, something OLA’s Financial Audit Division does with several state programs and organizations each year to ensure they’re not misusing public resources or failing to follow state laws.
Simon’s office fared well in the review but wasn’t perfect. OLA’s report, which was released Tuesday, noted that the office is required by state law to be able to verify that the grant money it distributes is being used properly. The Secretary of State’s Office aims to do that by requiring grantees to submit financial reports and include invoices or receipts for reported expenses.
Specifically, OLA reviewed the $11.3 million in grants the office distributed to over 300 political subdivisions for the implementation of absentee ballot drop boxes. The auditors randomly sampled 41 of those contracts and found that 15 (36%) didn’t have invoices or receipts in their financial reports, meaning…
