COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Ohio’s state auditor has scolded Gov. John Kasich’s signature job-creation effort for sloppy handling of ethics and conflict-of-interest procedures in its first year, but says no business conflicts exist among its executives.
A compliance audit released Thursday by Republican Auditor Dave Yost followed a high-profile fight for access to JobsOhio’s private books. The review did not assess the office’s fiscal health, but slapped the office for several instances where it lacked or didn’t follow internal procedures.
JobsOhio says all the issues have since been addressed.
Yost, a former prosecutor, subpoenaed JobsOhio’s private books for the review. That was criticized by Kasich and fellow Republicans in the Legislature.
JobsOhio complied under protest in March. Lawmakers also have changed state law to shield future private spending from the state audit process.
Democratic state Rep. John Patrick Carney, who has been an outspoken critic of JobsOhio and is challenging Yost in 2014, said Yost botched the job.
“This is not an audit. This is a whitewashed attempt that fails to give taxpayers a full accounting of JobsOhio,” Carney said in a press release in which he criticized Yost for using the term “haphazardly” in describing the method of selecting projects to review.
“Haphazard sampling is a term commonly used by auditors,” Ohio Republican Party spokesman Chris Schrimpf fired back.
“Carney revealed himself once again to be a partisan attack dog, who apparently doesn’t even understand the fundamentals of the office for which he is running,” Schrimpf said.