Rauner: Quinn should be hauled before legislative panel

Gov. Pat Quinn should be hauled before the Legislative Audit Commission to testify about how decisions were made with regard to a $54.5 million anti-violence program as well as give a full public accounting of his role in decision-making about the troubled initiative, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner told the Sun-Times on Wednesday.

“I think he should come forward in every regard. This really looks corrupt. He should come forward and make clear what’s his role in it,” Rauner told the Sun-Times on Wednesday.

Rauner made the remarks in response to a Sun-Times story detailing how state money went to a prison re-entry program that was operating out of a day care center.

Separately, Republican members of the legislative audit commission on Wednesday also called for Quinn’s testimony before the panel that is looking for accountability in the now-defunct program that a state auditor general deemed a mess.

“This anti-violence program looks like a massive abuse and fraudulent. I think he’s got to come forward, come clean in-depth,” Rauner said.

Quinn has submitted to a lengthy question-and-answer session with reporters regarding the program that’s been under attack for months. Quinn maintains it was set up to combat violence in Chicago. But revelations over the NRI have continued and evolved since then. Two separate criminal probes are underway into different aspects of the program, the Sun-Times has reported.