NOTE: Shortly after becoming the Chairman of the KSGOP, I contacted Mark Skoglund, Executive Director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, to discuss our reporting concerns and dilemma. Mr. Skoglund was extremely professional, understanding, and helpful. To be clear; no reports submitted by my administration required refiling as a result of this audit or its findings. All reports requiring refiling were 100% from the previous administration.
A review of the last several years of KSGOP reports to Kansas Governmental Ethics was in order because the cash on hand at the end of each period did not align with the actual cash on hand in the checking accounts. As I stated at the January 2024 KSGOP State Committee Meeting in Overland Park, the numbers did not align. This problem was the result of one of two possible reasons: money was missing or the accounting reports were incorrectly submitted.
The only way to solve this serious inconsistency was to audit the KSGOP accounts. An audit by a private firm was estimated to cost in the $45,000-$70,000 range, and we could not afford this significant expense as we needed our dollars focused on winning upcoming elections and not on accounting detail services to unravel the past. I decided we needed to be a forward-facing organization focused on winning elections. And that is exactly what we did.
However, I kept the need to clean up the past top of mind continuing to look for an opportunity. And that moment occurred in a conversation with Kansas Governmental Ethics.
I explained our position, and they offered to audit our books (accounts) and compare them to the filed reports. And the cost to have them help us resolve these matters was zero. The trade-off was that they would work on it in their spare time, so it wouldn't come fast but would get done for free. And that was an offer I gladly accepted.
NOTE: Shortly after becoming the Chairman of the KSGOP, I contacted Mark Skoglund, Executive Director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, to discuss our reporting concerns and dilemma. Mr. Skoglund was extremely professional, understanding, and helpful. To be clear; no reports submitted by my administration required refiling as a result of this audit or its findings. All reports requiring refiling were 100% from the previous administration.
At the request of the Kansas Republican Party, Kansas Governmental Ethics completed a detailed and painstakingly in-depth audit of KSGOP reports filed over the past many years. The intent was to ensure proper reporting was reflected between the submitted reports and the actual cash balances at the close of each period. Upon their review, Kansas Governmental Ethics provided information on where inconsistencies and errors in reporting of expenditures and receipts were over- or under-reported.
At this time, the Kansas Governmental Ethics and the Kansas Republican Party have no reason to believe the many errors were anything but clerical mistakes and careless record-keeping over the last several years by the leadership team in place at that time. Some errors were as small as transposing two numbers. This leadership team had a duty to “know or should have known” that these errors were factual and that the errors were compounding with each subsequent report. There was a fiduciary responsibility by those on the leadership team because of their KSGOP position and, in some cases, because of their responsibilities in their professional career.
NOTE: Shortly after becoming the Chairman of the KSGOP, I contacted Mark Skoglund, Executive Director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, to discuss our reporting concerns and dilemma. Mr. Skoglund was extremely professional, understanding, and helpful. To be clear; no reports submitted by my administration required refiling as a result of this audit or its findings. All reports requiring refiling were 100% from the previous administration.
In our endless quest for transparency and accuracy, we have corrected, amended, and refiled prior years' reports as necessary.
As of the publishing of this article, we are still attempting to upload some of the information due to complications arising from the corrected data being older than the current online computer system and other technological issues. We hope to see this resolved soon.
Management Note: It is good to have these reporting discrepancies resolved and the financial books and reporting aligned, balanced, and accurate.
I ask all Kansas Republicans to join me in thanking Kansas Governmental Ethics - and Mark Skogkund - for their dedicated efforts to help us resolve this matter.
I look forward to all Republicans now focusing on the future, with the surety of knowing we have a solid and accurate financial base to build upon.
NOTE: Shortly after becoming the Chairman of the KSGOP, I contacted Mark Skoglund, Executive Director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, to discuss our reporting concerns and dilemma. Mr. Skoglund was extremely professional, understanding, and helpful. To be clear; no reports submitted by my administration required refiling as a result of this audit or its findings. All reports requiring refiling were 100% from the previous administration.
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