Leave it to the government to screw up selling the most in-demand product in the world. A new audit finds the ABC system wasted millions of taxpayer money every year…http://bit.ly/2AY86oD
The audit found that the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission lost the state nearly a million dollars a year — specifically, $11.3 million over the course of 13 years — due to poor handling of contracts. ABC officials also wasted $2.1 million by renting warehouse space that they then kept empty for seven years, the audit found.
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The audit found that at least five times the state paid for services that it didn’t have to pay for. And in both 2008 and 2016, the contractor received more money, citing increasing fuel costs, even though its fuel costs were actually down in those years.
I know you are going to be shocked by this, but it turns out the ABC Commission was not very cooperative…
Her staff also said in the audit that the ABC Commission did not appear very eager to assist in the investigation, giving only “limited assistance” until Wood’s office threatened to subpoena documents.
I highly doubt anyone is surprised by this. After all, we are the home of one of the biggest scandals in North Carolina ABC history with New Hanover County ABC administrator Billy Williams. Williams was not only the highest paid administrator in the state at $232k but he also stole money from the taxpayers (FYI: He still gets a $194k pension). The problem with the ABC system is it makes so much money. Pretty much all government programs lose money so red ink is not an uncommon site. In fact, it is expected. So when a branch of the government is making bank nobody cares about efficiency. The fact that they are in the green is all the matters. The fact that they could be deeper in the green is of no consequence. Hopefully, this audit will change that attitude. If not, and in all honesty even if they do, we need to privatize liquor sales. Why is the government controlling things again? It’s def not for efficiency purposes…
