slush fund (noun):
- a fund raised from the sale of refuse to obtain small luxuries or pleasures for a warship’s crew
- a fund for bribing public officials or carrying on corruptive propaganda
- an unregulated fund often used for illicit purposes
From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary entry, slush fund.
Rep. Mark Keller (R-Perry), Chairman of the Legislative Audit Advisory Commission, announced the annual legislative audit will take place on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1, North Office Building.
Eric Epstein, Coordinator of Rock the Capital, said: “This is a cynical ploy by a panel that rubber stamps political larceny.” Epstein pointed out that taxpayers cannot participate or ask questions of the auditor or the panel regarding the expenditure of taxpayer dollars. “These groundhogs are scared of their own shadow, and will return to their political hole for twelve more months of darkness and overspending.”
In response, Rock the Capital renewed its requests for:
- An open and transparent hearing with public participation.
- An open and transparent RFP for auditing services.
- The Audit should disclose the nature and amount of any findings of irregularities and improprieties.
- The Audit should provide descriptions of large, unusual and/or inappropriate sums disbursed by use of the “advance appropriation method.” This disbursement vehicle method does not
document to any external authority the justification for these expenditures.
The legislature has yet to answer Rock the Capital’s requests. The requests are unlikely to be honored.