There should be an accounting from NWAEDD

You’d think an agency that deals with millions of dollars could keep better track of it and would not get behind on bills. But, that hasn’t been the case with the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District.

NWAEDD and the Area Agency on Aging split the sheet because the development district “forgot” to pay a $528,000 grocery bill, or at least that was the final straw. How could the powers that be at NWAEDD forget a bill that size? It makes you wonder what other bills the district forgot to pay.

Well, there also was that water bill for the Art Van Matre Senior Center that NWAEDD forgot to pay, which led to Mountain Home briefly shutting off the tap for the center. While it apparently was the first time water service was interrupted, it wasn’t the first time NWAEDD was delinquent paying the center’s water bill.

And there was $83,000 in donations to renovate a senior center at Springdale that one day was there, and then —poof! —was gone.

So, it’s understandable that the Area Agency on Aging wanted an accounting of what was happening with the funds NWAEDD was overseeing and asked for an audit, or else it would drop their contract. Instead of an audit, NWAEDD terminated the contract between the two agencies, ending about 30 years of cooperation between the two.

To most people, it’s somewhat of a red flag when it opts to end the contract rather than have an audit.

NWAEDD is one of those agencies left over from flush economic times when grants were plentiful and counties didn’t have the expertise to apply for grants and manage them. It was formed in 1968 to help nine counties —Baxter Marion, Boone, Searcy, Newton, Madison, Carroll, Benton and Washington. Originally, it assisted with grants, long-range planning, development and other things the counties couldn’t do or afford on their own.

As a sidenote, NWAEDD gave us what would become the Ozark Mountain Solid Waste Management District, which left Baxter County spinning in the wind with the NABORS landfill mess

However, in the last few years it seems NWAEDD just hasn’t been on the ball. These problems with the Area Agency on the Aging surfaced, and they’ve led to questions about NWAEDD’s handling of Government Improvement Funds, $3.3 million of which were on hand in March. While the GIF money is earmarked for specific projects, NWAEDD apparently wanted to use those funds to pay its delinquent grocery bill. It’s like the old saying about robbing Peter to pay Paul, although Peter already had his money obligated for other expenses.

With what’s come out about these situations so far, it makes people wonder what else is going on NWAEDD. It’s a clearinghouse for all this taxpayer money for the counties and other agencies, yet there seems to be a problem keeping track of it. Of course, when you start moving money around from one account to another things like that happen.

It’s worrisome, too, when a governmental agency neglects other things, even if they seem trivial. For example, the NWAEDD website’s homepage links to the agency’s 2008 annual report. You’d think the agency would have something more recent than six years old.

When you click on the board of directors link, it hasn’t been updated in a while, either. Board members are county judges, mayors and an at-large representatives from the nine counties. It still shows former county judge Joe Bodenhamer as a Baxter County representative, along with former Marion County judge James Giles, and former Flippin mayor Mary Jane Erwin. Steve Womack, who now is a congressman, is listed as the Rogers mayor on the board, and the late Kenton Treat still is listed as chairman of the board. None of them are associated with the district board now.

There’s also a NWAEDD Facebook page, but nothing’s been posted on it since 2011, when the page was created. It seems no one’s taking care of the agency’s online presence, which these days is a powerful tool to have and manage.

With people raising questions, what’s needed is a complete, thorough, independent audit of the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District operations so somebody can get an idea of what’s going on, where the money’s going and why incidents like the delinquent bills happened.

Sometimes, an organization can be around for so long that it begins to think of itself as its own entity with little or no accountability to those it serves. When that happens, things can start going wrong, whether intentionally or because of slacking off, neither of which are acceptable in public service.