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DCA’s nightmare: The California State Athletic Commission is about to get audited

By Zach Arnold | August 9, 2012

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A potentially nightmarish scenario for Department of Consumer Affairs head honchos Denise Brown and Awet Kidane, along with the folks at DCA’s legal department … if the politicians are willing to reveal the skeletons in the closet.

Assemblyman Luis Alejo, whose efforts at pushing AB2100 failed, has gotten his CSAC audit request approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Here’s the press release from his office:

(SACRAMENTO) – Assemblymember Luis A. Alejo’s (D-Salinas) request for a state audit of the California State Athletic Commission was unanimously approved by the bicameral Joint Legislative Audit Committee yesterday.

The California State Athletic Commission is responsible for protecting the health and safety of its licensees; boxers, kickboxers and martial arts athletes. Through the years, the Commission has become one of the largest combat sports sanctioning bodies in the nation. However, it has been recently highlighted that the Commission had become insolvent due to excessive spending.

“This situation is of great concern to me; other combat sports fans and athletes in our state because it could cause the Commission to cease its operations, thereby denying regulation and oversight for combat sports,” says Alejo.

The idea of the audit came as a result of the Commission’s internal financial troubles being exposed. Since then, two of the Commissioners and the Executive Officer have resigned. Recent reports indicate that the Commission’s financial problems might be due in part to money being overspent on athletic inspectors’ salaries and in-state travel.

The state audit requested by Alejo will focus on reviewing the financial operations of the Commission and whether they are in compliance with relevant laws, rules, and regulations. In addition, Assemblyman Alejo asked the State Auditor to review the current status of the Boxer’s Pension Fund and the Neurological Examination Fund which are regulated by the Commission.

“This audit will help us determine if a strategy has been developed to control the Commission’s costs and to guarantee that public dollars are being spent to serve the needs of athletes, promoters and fans of combat sports in California,” says Alejo.

Luis Alejo represents the 28th District in the California State Assembly, which consists of San Benito County, the Salinas Valley, North Monterey County, South Santa Clara County and the city of Watsonville.

Given the recent troubles surrounding accounting & loan practices for special funds in the state of California, the status of the boxer’s pension & neurological funds is a real touchy subject. There’s quite a bit of cash available for politicians to misuse, either in administrative costs or by juggling the numbers to hide any potential loans from other DCA departments with the funds.

We applaud Assemblyman Alejo’s request for an audit of the athletic commission. I suspect there’s more than a few agencies under the DCA banner that also deserve the full audit treatment as well.

Video of yesterday’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing can be watched here or downloaded here in MP4 format (2.23 Gigs).

Topics: CSAC, Media, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

6 Responses to “DCA’s nightmare: The California State Athletic Commission is about to get audited”

  1. Steve4192 says:

    LOL

    Won’t the auditors be surprised when they open up the books and discover that CSAC was never insolvent.

    I’m more interested to see their take on the boxer’s pension fund, which has been around for something like 20 years and has never paid out a dime in benefits. I would be shocked if that fund comes up clean.

    • Zach Arnold says:

      Well, there’s many issues regarding cash that will raise alarm bells.

      For example, is the positive cash at CSAC really just cash from that loan DCA got for them? Is the cash on paper really just paper and not real? Are promissory notes or loans off the books from inter-agency loans that we don’t know about? All of this is entirely possible.

      As the Parks fund scandal recently showed us, it’s pretty easy to allocate $54 million dollars under another name and have it hidden for a decade. I can only imagine what is about to be discovered with California’s 500 other special funds, including the boxing pension & neurological funds. It’s a real can of worms being opened here on a major level.

      But the main event is going to be in court with the current lawsuits and future lawsuits against DCA. This is where people could end up getting fired and/or exposed for liability due to fraud of taxpayer funds.

  2. […] CSAC on Verge of Being Audited (FightOpinion.com) […]

  3. […] DCA’s nightmare: The California State Athletic Commission is about to get audited (August 9th, 2012) […]

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