BISMARCK -- Business practices and employee morale are improved at Workforce Safety and Insurance, a state auditor told legislators Monday, but the agency still is uncooperative in some areas, a conclusion its interim CEO confirmed.
Bruce Furness, interim CEO at WSI since March, said he urged agency staff to cooperate and concur with state auditors "until the staff convinced me it would be an exercise in futility" on a few topics in the review.
The state Auditor's Office reported to the Legislative Audit and Fiscal Review Committee on Monday about its review of how WSI has complied with 60 recommendations auditors made to WSI in a 2006 performance audit.
State Audit Manager Gordy Smith said WSI complied fully with 19, partially with 36, did not comply with three and two recommendations are now considered not relevant.
Smith and WSI officials disagree on whether the agency is now complying with state laws on how public funds are spent. Smith said $128,000 in severance pay to former CEO Sandy Blunt was improper and that the agency was still not correctly awarding certain contracts, among other issues.
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In several instances where auditors said WSI hasn't implemented recommended changes, the agency argues that it has, in fact, fully complied.
Furness said the problem was that auditors' interpretation of facts and WSI's interpretation of facts in some of those cases did not line up and agreement seemed out of reach.
Furness said he met "many times" with state Auditor Bob Peterson, "to no avail."
Peterson disputed that, telling the committee that Furness stopped to talk to him at the Capitol one time when Furness was "making the rounds .?.??. but that was the only time we visited."
In a 2006 employee survey, auditors found 50 percent of WSI employees disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that "favoritism is not an issue in raises or promotions." This year, that number has decreased to 38 percent who disagree or strongly disagree.
Rep. Bette Grande,
R-Fargo, criticized the emphasis on employee morale.
Rep. Frank Wald, R-Dickinson, said auditors are still on a witch hunt against Blunt and it seems to him that "we have an unrelenting appetite to persecute" Blunt.
