Gov. Nixon's office receives second-worst audit rating

The Missouri governor’s office today received a fair rating in an audit by State Auditor Tom Schweich. Fair is the second-worst rating given by the auditor's office, which gives four ratings: excellent, good, fair and poor.

The audit results were critical of Gov. Jay Nixon’s travel expenses and tabulated the cost to taxpayers at $602,000 for travel by Nixon and his staff during the three fiscal years audited, ending in June 2011.

The audit said Nixon’s office overspent its annual fiscal appropriations each year audited. Between January 2009 and June 2011, roughly $1.7 million of the governor’s office expenses at large were charged to and paid from appropriations of other state agencies, according to the audit. The audit notes, however, that state law is unclear on the use of state resources by the governor’s office for political and personal purposes, other than prohibiting the funds for personal or private gain.

The 26-page audit detailed certain travel expenses such as 334 days using state planes at a cost of $565,000 during Nixon’s first 30 months in office and hotel and meal charges exceeding the state’s recommended rates. The audit said 96 percent of the cited flying expenses were paid by various state agencies, including the Economic Development, Public Safety and Natural Resources departments.

“Gov. Nixon continues to ignore advice given to him by state auditors of both political parties regarding operating costs for personnel and wasteful travel expenses,” the audit reads.

The audit singles out a governor’s office employee, who resided in St. Louis, for staying at a Jefferson City hotel about 150 nights at a cost of $12,000 when more economic alternatives existed. It also identified a $15,500 savings opportunity for two flights to Washington, D.C., had office staff booked commercial flights rather than state aircraft. The audit recorded 19 out-of-state flights totaling about $92,800, including $15,630 for wait-time costs and $8,750 for pilot expenses. The auditor noted the governor’s office does not currently evaluate whether commercial flights would be more economical than state planes for out-of-state trips.

In the comments area of the audit summary, the auditor said, “The office of the governor provided responses to the audit findings, but those responses are generally nonresponsive. For the most part, the governor's office does not commit to implementing the recommendations.”