Idaho GOP: Ada County Republican Central Committee Financial Review Report

Following the February 1 meeting of the Ada County Republican Central Committee in which an internal financial review was presented, the 12-page financial review report in its entirety was made available to the Idaho Dispatch.

Our coverage of the meeting can be found here and here.

The internal financial review committee was comprised of: Vicky McIntyre, Brian Merrell, and Sue Hoffer.

The report gives background and explains,

“Seventeen elected Precinct Committee people filed a formal complaint to the Idaho GOP about perceived financial issues in April 2023. After an initial investigative review, the Idaho GOP Chairman ruled for a financial review. The ACRCC Chairman Victor Miller appealed that ruling. The Idaho GOP Chairperson initiated a special meeting of the Idaho GOP Executive Board in June 2023. The Idaho GOP Executive Board rejected the appeal. A financial review committee was officially formed but the [then] ACRCC Chairman, Victor Miller, appealed the Executive Board ruling. This would require the issue to be placed on the Idaho GOP Winter meeting. Prior to this meeting, six (6) elected officials of the ACRCC resigned on October 5, 2023. (Resignations were from Chairman, 1st Vice Chair, 2nd Vice Chair, 3rd Vice Chair, Treasurer, and State Committeewoman.) The resignations initiated a mandatory financial review, for which this report will detail the findings/recommendations.”

The committee was charged with investigating the following:

1. Determine if the original complaint from the 17 PC’s to the Idaho Republican Party is valid.
2. Determine the balance in all financial accounts is accurate and reported to the Secretary of State is accurate.
3. Provide confidence to the members of the ACRCC that the financial records of the organization are being reported correctly.

36 items were reviewed by the committee. They included things like QuickBooks transactions, Secretary of State reporting, 1099 reporting, budgets, expenditures, credit card transactions, bank account records, donor refunds, meeting minutes, and more.

The committee answered the first charge by saying,

“Overall, we find that the complaint letter by 17 elected Precinct Committee members of the ACRCC was valid. We have:

1. Uncovered multiple documentation errors resulting in overpayments and incorrect submissions to the Secretary of State
2. Board decisions overriding ACRCC motions
3. Multiple examples of violations of Bylaws and Fiscal Policy & Procedure
4. Multiple examples of misreporting of financial transactions with the Secretary of State filings; both revenue and expenses
5. Confirmed the correction of sub-vendor designations in QuickBooks transaction recordings
6. Evidence of late bank reconciliations
7. Inaccurate 1099 filings for 2022
8. Other miscellaneous examples of poor accounting practices and lack of internal controls
9. Identified missing assets and suspect transactions
10. Identified potential FEC violation”

The finding of the audit details a list of 44 items. Some of these include:

– Quickbooks was not used correctly.
– Documents were not appropriately signed by the requestor or by the approver.
– Assets are missing from the 2022 and 2023 [Western Idaho] Fair merchandise.
– There are 37 expense transactions in QuickBooks in 2022 with no specified vendor totaling $107,559.81.
– …It appears that insufficient records were kept when donors made contributions to allow accurate reporting in QuickBooks and to the Secretary of State.
– Deposits were not timely.
– Conflicts of interest appear to exist between several of the Board members and vendors that were paid large amounts for purchases exceeding the $1,000 amount. All conflicts of interest should have been disclosed so that these purchases could be approved by the ACRCC, and not the Executive Board.
– ACRCC website lists the current officers as the administration that resigned.
– Refunds were made in September and October 2023 via Executive Board members directly contacting large donors suggesting they ask for their money back.
– Large expenditures were created in September to reimburse Executive Board members for expenses from May 2023.
– FEC [Federal Election Commission] document in response to FEC letter, due no later than 8/8/23, was dated 10/4/2023 by the former Treasurer. Information submitted indicates two individuals contributed the money when bank reconciliation documents indicate the money was transferred from the ACRCC main bank account to the Federal bank account. A checking account was opened at Mountain West bank as a federal checking account with no record in the minutes of either the central committee or the executive board showing a discussion of creating such an account. These actions may constitute a violation of federal election regulations and campaign finance laws.

Pages seven and eight of the report offer a list of 27 recommendations to remedy the concerns found. You can view the entire report below.

ACRCC Financial Review Report 2024-01-29

---

Tags: ACRCC, Ada County Republican Central Committee, Brian Merrell, Campaign Finance Reporting, Conflicts of Interest, Dave Litster, Expenditures, FEC, Financial Review Report, Financial Transactions, ID GOP, Idaho Republican Party, Idaho Secretary of State, Refunds, SOS, Sue Hoffer, Vicky McIntyre, Victor Miller

---