Rep calls for reform after state loses 62K bottles of booze
Tom Kunse can’t begin to understand how the Michigan Liquor Control Commission lost almost a million dollars worth of booze.
A recent investigation by the Michigan Office of the Auditor General uncovered “widespread mismanagement,” and State Rep. Kunse, R-Clare, is now calling for reforms after more than 62,000 bottles of stateowned alcohol disappeared, uncovering what Kunse called “extensive accounting failures.”
While Kunse realizes the missing alcohol could be joke fodder, he said the five governor-appointed state liquor control commissioners have some explaining to do.
“I’m sorry, but how is it even possible that the MLCC could be so mismanaged that 62,000 bottles of anything could go missing?” Kunse asked. “There are clearly deep issues within the commission that must be addressed.
“Just because we are talking about alcohol doesn’t make these problems any less concerning. We would all be fixated on finding solutions if the department of corrections said it lost 62,000 prisoners or treasury said it lost 20 percent of tax revenues.”
More than 20 percent of the state’s alcohol inventory came up missing, and the MLCC “could not provide any information about the missing supply and was forced to process a refund to all vendors for the missing bottles,” Kunse said.
In Michigan, the liquor control commission manages alcohol by facilitating sales through authorized distribution agents, using 11 state-owned warehouses, Kunse said.
The OAG investigation revealed that the MLCC failed to keep adequate sale and purchase records; from February 2021 to August
2022, $1.1 billion in alcohol orders were not filled in the state’s online ordering system, according to Kunse, who said the liquor control commission also gave liquor licenses to three organizations prohibited from selling alcohol.
Kunse put the blame on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who in her recent budget proposal wants the state “drastically reduce funding
for the OAG, which has exposed extensive incompetence, inefficiency and fraud in its reviews of state agencies and programs,” Kunse said.
“It is critical that the Legislature ensure this office remains fully funded so it can continue its essential work,” he said.
Whitmer’s proposed $8.3 million net budget cut to the OAG is coming under
further scrutiny after Auditor General Doug Ringler sent a letter to House and Senate leaders, Kunse said.
Ringler explained how
the 28 percent funding reduction would kneecap the OAG’s ability to fulfill audit requirements and could put federal funding at risk.