Florida lawmakers incensed when FMPA officials fail to appear before audit committee

Dive Brief:

Florida lawmakers serving on an audit oversight panel are incensed after officials from the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) failed to appear at a hearing to discuss allegations of spending and fuel hedging mismanagement.
A report issued by the Florida Auditor General found fuel hedging practices not in line with industry standards, along with travel and other taxpayer-funded expenses which appeared lavish and unreasonable.
Florida Sen. Joe Abruzzo (D), chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, indicated that officials will be subpoenaed the next time a hearing is scheduled.

Dive Insight:

Officials from FMPA failed to appear before an audit committee on Monday, where legislators were waiting to ask questions about a recent report which detailed allegations of mismanagement and inappropriate spending. The SaintPetersBlog reports the auditor general found fuel hedging had cost municipal customers almost $250 million from 2003 to 2014, and cited hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses and approximately $12,000 for parties.

FMPA responded to the report, saying even before its preliminary publication in January the agency had taken action on several of the recommendations. FMPA immediately discontinued certain expenses and the FMPA Executive Committee and decided to retain an independent management consulting firm to help the agency address findings on the more complex topics.

“The purpose of any audit is to take a look at what you did and what you’re doing and figure out how you can do things better. We take this opportunity to improve very seriously and believe we have demonstrated our commitment to improving by taking swift action based on the preliminary audit recommendations,” said FMPA Board Chairman Bill Conrad.

FMPA Chairman of the Board Bill Conrad, who serves as the mayor of Newberry, reportedly said the hearing notice was not received until late last week and that scheduling conflicts kept him from appearing. FMPA General Counsel Frederick Bryant was reportedly sick.