Luzerne County controller releases audit on campaign finance deficiencies

Luzerne County Controller Walter Griffith released an audit Tuesday highlighting election bureau deficiencies involving campaign finance tracking and enforcement.

It does not come as a surprise because Griffith and election bureau representatives held a media briefing in June announcing plans to team up to correct failures in campaign finance requirements dating back years.

Griffith noted his office completed the audit at the request of county Manager Romilda Crocamo and county Election Board members. He thanked Crocamo, the county law office and election bureau for their cooperation in completing the audit, which focused on 2023 political committee and candidate campaign finance submissions and filing requirements.

“The bureau of elections has had a constant change in the director and deputy director positions over a period of four years, and this lack of institutional knowledge has caused the campaign finance reports and late fee penalty collection to be placed on unacceptable and less than appropriate priority status at the bureau,” it said.

The administration’s response said “all findings are consistent with the fact that the bureau had a high turnover in recent years, and campaign finance was not the focus.”

One audit finding said there was no organized system to scan and publicly post campaign finance reports received in the bureau.

As a corrective action, the election bureau created a special folder on its document scanner and instituted a procedure to ensure all reports are properly scanned, filed and posted online.

Another finding: campaign finance forms time-stamped by staff were either unreadable or inaccurate, and employees were not required to verify this information.

The controller’s office recommended the bureau purchase a digital time-stamping machine and have all employees verify the time stamp is readable prior to scanning.

In its response, the administration said this corrective action is “absolutely necessary” because it is “very hard to read the dates on filed documents.”

There also were issues with candidate and committee campaign finance reports not kept up to date or filed accurately, it said. The audit recommends more bureau staff training on proper filing and labeling procedures for all reports, particularly because some have similar names. For example, it points out the Luzerne County Republicans and the Luzerne County Republican Party are different entities.

The administration indicated it will ensure the folders for committees reference the names “exactly as they are submitted by the committee.”

More information about campaign finance requirements should be provided by the bureau for candidates and committees, another finding said.

As a result, the administration said the bureau can furnish information supplementing what it currently provides, but it stressed bureau employees “should not be giving advice to candidates about how to fill out their campaign finance forms or what to report” because that would be an “overstep” of the bureau’s role.

The county’s five-citizen, volunteer Election Board should be receiving information on whether candidates filed necessary reports before it certifies elections, the audit said.

An underlined legal citation in the audit says no person shall be deemed elected to a public office until all required reports have been filed.

“Once the program is running smoothly, it should not be an issue to provide a list to the board and on the website,” the administration’s response said.

Other findings indicate the bureau should better document payments by candidates and committees and recommends the county treasurer’s office handle revenue collection instead of the bureau.

The administration said receipts “should be provided and documented.” The bureau should discourage cash payments and send candidates to the treasurer’s office if they insist on paying with cash, it said. The bureau will accept checks and money orders and send them to the treasurer’s office in a timely manner, it said.

The audit notes “several” instances where candidates and committees were charged “incorrect amounts as a penalty” due to the wrong data entered into the software program the bureau is now using for report tracking.

“There are several candidates and committees that appear to be overcharged for penalty fees which should be immediately refunded,” it said.

The administration said the audit did not provide the bureau with a list of those candidates/committees it maintains were overcharged.

Griffith said Tuesday he will review that information with the bureau.

In closing, the audit said the controller’s office recognizes the the process of filing and properly recording finance reports “has not been done appropriately by the bureau of elections in the past several years.”

It also acknowledges audit findings related to report filing and penalty fees “are issues that were not due to this administration’s lack of oversight.”