SEATTLE — Washington’s Commission on African American Affairs diverted public money for about six years to a nonprofit organization that spent much of it in ways considered inappropriate, according to a state audit released Thursday.
The audit report says former executive director of the commission Rosalund Jenkins entered an agreement with former commissioner Thelma Jackson’s nonprofit Northwest Institute for Leadership and Change in 2006 to manage all money donated to the commission. Those donations are considered public money even when managed by the nonprofit said Troy Niemeyer, the deputy director of state audit.
Through the agreement, the nonprofit spent $258,000 in “unsupported or unallowable” ways from December 2006 to February 2012. A total of $284,000 in donations were collected by the nonprofit on behalf of the commission.
“I don’t think it’s illegal to transfer the money, but the commission is still responsible for how the money is spent,” Niemeyer said.
The audit identified a number of specific improper activities by the nonprofit in that time period, such as spending $22,000 to provide transportation to public events and paying “private parties” $25 for each African Americans under age 25 they brought to events and an additional $20 for anyone else. Other things, like expensing food, did not have adequate documentation to prove they were for business purposes.
Attempts made to reach Jenkins for comment were not returned. Niemeyer said the state did not find evidence of fraud, and nothing has been reported to law enforcement.
The commission’s current executive director Ed Prince said all donated items now go into the commission’s state account and that their financial practices are “completely different now.” Prince was appointed to the position in late 2011, and the agreement with Jackson’s nonprofit was dissolved in early 2012.
“We instituted internal control over our finances to make sure something like that doesn’t occur again,” he said.
