DOA says it didn’t keep track of $4 billion in emergency spending

By Mark Lisheron

The public is unlikely to ever know how the state Department of Administration came to decide how to allocate and spend nearly $4 billion from three federal pandemic emergency spending bills.

Questioned by a sometimes frustrated Joint Legislative Audit Committee Tuesday at the Capitol, DOA leaders acknowledged that many of the decisions about how to allocate money to state agencies and local governments were made in phone conversations and emails with Gov. Tony Evers and his staff that were not documented.

There is no documented rationale for how much agencies would be granted or why they were granted those amounts. How the money has been spent is also often impossible to decipher given the lack of tracking or records.

Thousands of Wisconsinites impacted by department backlog

By Michael Jahr

Dogged by a huge backlog for occupational licenses and complaints by applicants and lawmakers, Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Professional Services must submit to an audit of its operations.

An all-Republican majority of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted Tuesday to direct the Legislative Audit Bureau to examine an agency that fields between 5,000 and 10,000 calls every week. The LAB website projects the expected release of the audit in fall 2023.

Dozens of applicants and leaders of trade associations representing licensed professions have been frustrated by months-long licensing delays, long lapses in communication and requests for materials that applicants had already submitted.

The delays force would-be workers to sit on the sidelines after they graduate or move to Wisconsin from another state, unable to work in their field, serve others with their skills or earn paychecks commensurate with their education and experience.

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