shrapnel
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2015
- Messages
- 2,577
OK, I’m just trying to understand the hatred that was exhibited here about the expo. I don’t apply for Utah tags, I have no interest in Utah tags, but how that hatred spilled over to the name calling and bringing a church into the mix, doesn’t seem to promote objectivity into the dialogue.The count is still 2 for 2 on CPAs weighing in on this. As you state, you are not a CPA, nor is Oscar, nor is Kenny Johnson.
First, the "internal audit report." Most don't know what an internal audit is and how different an internal audit is compared to an audit a publicly traded company is subjected to or what a Governmental Agency goes through under Yellow Book standards. Most folks see "audit" and they think it is some exhaustive effort. It can be exhaustive, if done according to GAGAS or GAS, but an internal audit is not.
Go read the report - it says explicitly "this was not conducted according to Generally Accepted Governmental Auditing Standards." What was done is not even close to what the CPA world considers an outside independent audit under Generally Accepted Governmental Auditing Standards.
Now the funny part. I was going to just let this thread move along, but folks seem to be placing confidence in an "internal audit" of a program that isn't even the auction tag program.
The internal audit report does not address these auction tags Oscar refers to above. Those are called "Conservation Permits" That flimsy internal audit report only covers the 200 raffle tags, known as "Expo Permits".
I'm not making this up. Go read the report. It says "Expo Permits." It says nothing about "Conservation Permits." But, Oscar claims I'm making some unfounded aspersions and implications.
That report does not mention the 500+ auction tags, the "Conservation Permits" that get sold for the big dollars that has folks bragging about the Expo. That's the big program; the program putting a lot more money in the pockets of groups with very loose rules as to how the groups have to account for it. Only 30% of the auction tag money goes to UTDWR. The other 70% goes to mostly two groups, MDF and SFW.
I find it laugahble that @OriginalOscar asks his question in the context of auction tags, yet the auction tag program is not the program in the link he provided to give the Conservation Permit auction program some sort of credibility; almost trying to sanitize it.
I've lost much interest in what Utah does with their tags and how much prostitution they allow of their wildlife. If I was a Utah citizen, I would be demanding these programs (both the Expo Permits and Conservation Permits), the UTDWR, and the groups who receive these tag proceeds, be subjected to a Yellow Book audit under GAGAS. I'm not a Utah citizen, so that's moot.
I know a lot of good Utah folks who would like to see this stuff reeled in, but the money coming from the auction tags is what is used to keep grease on the legislative skids, so the effort of residents to implement change is nearly impossible. It becomes a self-perpetuating program; get the tags and make the auction money, then use the money to buy the influence to keep the money flowing.
I leave it up to Utah folks to decide what they want to do with their public assets, such as tags. Yet, when folks come here and want to post this kind of smoke and mirrors, I'll call BS.
Again, I stand by my statements.
Carry on.....
I will have to take your word as an accountant that the audit is invalid, but hopefully you can see how many people jumped on the bandwagon of calling out all the promoters and expo itself as a waste of time and money, yet some of the organizations that were supposed to be afoul of the expo, still participated.
I also saw thousands of Utah and other residents there that didn’t appear concerned about corruption. I guess it doesn’t matter who goes or why, I know I enjoyed it and didn’t go to support anti hunting platforms or to enter any lotteries for cheap or scarce tags…