Charles Tuttle, Minot

Yesterday Wednesday, November 6th I drove from Minot to Bismarck to observe (I believe it’s called) the legislators of the audit review committee.

The purpose of the committee is to review the state auditor’s audits and to make recommendations based on the audit’s findings.

I have taken a special interest in these hearings after the legislators passed a bill to stop certain audits from happening without their permission. (The Attorney General has opinioned unconstitutional).

By attending several of these meetings it has become abundantly clear that things have been for years done wrong. Rules are broken, laws ignored and just shoddy business practices with the taxpayers’ money. Even blatant misappropriation of funds.

In the University of Science case in Wahpeton there was blatant corruption and an attempted coverup. In the case of the state library money was given to two libraries that did not qualify and one library that did but received no funds.

By attending these hearings it has become very clear that there are three main bad actors, Rep. Mike Nathe, Sen. Judy Lee and the Chairman. In yesterday’s meeting just as in the past ones, Mr. Nathe continues to wage attacks on our state auditor along with his co-conspirator Mrs. Lee. They kept repeating that the wrongdoings found by the auditor’s audits were just simple human mistakes and that all of us have been guilty of such.

They then criticized the auditor for following the law in his referrals to the correct law enforcement agencies. The chairman even questions why things are so different now than from the previous auditor.

The answer is very simple. Transparency is the word. Accountability, no one has had to be accountable. These legislators are more concerned with protecting the agencies and their fellow peers than the taxpayers they are supposed to represent.

Mr. Nathe and Mrs. Lee need to resign both – are “rhino” Republicans. Nathe is why we have common core and liberal teaching in our schools and Mrs. Lee is why we spent $4.5 billion on welfare in North Dakota. Their voting record as liberal legislators are a matter of public record. So it should be no surprise that they are the ones fighting to downplay these bad audits and make their committee ineffectual and a total waste of taxpayer dollars.