In the past seven days, I was writing about a $ 25 million mortgage application administered by the West Virginia Economic Advancement Authority that had misplaced more than $ 24 million in the past 19 decades.
The Legislative Reviewer’s report on the whole matter is really damned, but not surprising. I’ve seen a few readers email me asking about future options. Who are the names of the persons liable? Will there be a forensic exam? Is someone going to be charged?
However, this is a common story in the West Virginia government. The EDA’s existing management can be excused, considering that pretty much everything happened in the time of former Governors Bob Clever, Joe Manchin and Earl Ray Tomblin, but we will most likely in no way see anyone from previous EDA leadership on any fees.
I’m not sure if fines are even justified. In summary, under a 2002 law, the Board of Treasury Investments, administered by the Condition Treasurer’s Office, was able to lend the EDA $ 25 million for a bank loan method. The EDA then drafted loans to seven venture fund companies, which then invested funds in companies in West Virginia.
The goal was simple: by investing in these companies, they would thrive and retain or retain the services of many more employees. Their results would result in a return on the financial commitment for the venture capital firms, which would then repay their financial loans to the EDA, which would then repay the $ 25 million mortgage to BTI.
That never happened. Disregarding the desired payments, the EDA was only willing to provide BTI with well over $ 600,000 on the basic principle of credit, which made an additional $ 24 million noteworthy. 4 of the seven venture money companies went bankrupt. Two of the $ 8 million total venture fund companies never invested in companies in West Virginia. And the EDA kept poor records between 2002 and 2016 and was barely ever able to confirm whether any of the Venture Fund investments led to economic progress or job creation or retention.
The whole point of carrying out cash is investing in business and tips in the hopes that investments made by people will result in high returns when the business or strategy starts normally. It’s a risky endeavor and it usually doesn’t happen. That’s not the problem unless you believe that government administration shouldn’t use tax pounds to pick winners and losers.
The problem here is when the smart administration and democratically administered legislature passed the bill for this financial lending program, it did not include real benchmarks and reporting specifications and no actual control. As a result, the financial loan application escaped scrutiny until 2019, when former treasurer John Perdue attempted to approach the personal loan plan and identified the issues ahead of the legislative auditor’s office investigation into the environment under review.
This raises another problem: why did the Treasurer’s Office only uncover these concerns in 2019? Perdue was a 6 term treasurer who started business in 1997, five years shortly before the EDA financial credit method was introduced. Why did it take a long time to investigate 18 that the $ 25 million EDA loaned to the EDA in 2002 was not reimbursed?
New state treasurer, Riley Moore, has only been at work for two weeks but is preoccupied with the issue as well as finding other BTI-funded plans.
***.
Derrick Evans, the former Republican member of the Wayne County Delegate Residence who was charged more than three months ago for collaborating in dismissing the U.S. Capitol Constructing to leave Congress and find President Joe Biden as the winner of The Election 2020 was replaced in the last 7 days. But that has turned out to be a controversy over its ownership.
Evans resigned on Jan. 9, triggering a 15-day window for the local political party’s government committee to select the names of three qualified men and women to be sent to Governor Jim Justice, as of the date Five times he had the listing experience to pick 1 of some nominees.
In this case, Wayne County’s Republican Government Committee filed its letter on Jan. 14 in three names. However, the West Virginia Republican Congregation filed their personal letter in three names on January 22nd. The only variation affecting the two letters is the state GOP letter with one of the names exchanged for Joshua Booth. Coincidentally, Booth was the one Justice picked last Wednesday.
The Wayne County REC filed a match with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to authorize the judiciary to rule on any of the names on their file. Justice and his advisors believe the second letter is valid and approve of Booth’s appointment. I’m told about the challenges that arise everywhere, regardless of whether the Wayne County’s REC complied with Republican Bash regulations when they met and chose their names.
The state regulation is very clear: justice is essential to determine just one of the names submitted by the district committee as long as it is within the 15 working day window from the time the delegate resigns. After 15 days, Justice can choose who he wants based on the condition code. But did the district committee follow the internal rules required for the celebration? The Supreme Court file has to decide.
If there had been problems with Wayne County REC’s selection of names, Justice could have waited 15 days and then made his selection. It is likely that a situation in the courtroom would play out regardless, but then the judiciary would have an excellent argument on the court record. Instead, it would appear to the layman that the rules have been enhanced to designate a business owner to act as the legislator for the state.
Steven Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.
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