ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE AUDIT COMMITTEE SELECTS FORENSIC AUDIT FIRM

Norwich — The audit committee of the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative voted Friday to recommend hiring CohnReznick LLP to conduct the state-mandated, fiveyear forensic audit of the cooperative’s finances.

The full CMEEC board will be asked at its June 28 meeting to approve a resolution appointing the firm with a budget to cover the cost, CMEEC Business Development Director Jake Pagragan said Friday.

If approved, the audit firm in late June or early July will begin examining CMEEC’s revenues and expenses for the past five fiscal years as directed in a state law that took effect last fall. The law calls for greater oversight of CMEEC in the wake of the public outcry over the cooperative’s hosting of lavish trips to the Kentucky Derby from 2013 through 2016.

The appointment of a forensic audit firm also initially became controversial when CMEEC chose its regular annual audit firm, BlumShapiro — the only firm seeking the work — to also do the forensic audit. The CMEEC board agreed with new state-appointed municipal electric consumer advocate Bill Kowalski to re-issue the request for proposals to a broader list of state-qualified firms provided by Kowalski.

In the second application round, CMEEC used a state list of forensic auditors and four firms responded to the request for proposals.

“The re-issue resulted in a selection that appears solid,” Kowalski said Friday, “based upon the content of the submission selected by the CMEEC Audit Committee.”