Mass GOP Calls for Investigation Into Former Gov. Patrick’s Use of Trust Funds

Friday, June 12, 2015

GoLocalWorcester News Team

The Massachusetts GOP wants former Governor Deval Patrick's use of off-budget trust accounts investigated. On Thursday, the House Republican Leadership filed an order with the House Clerk and a letter on behalf of the Caucus to the Inspector General Glenn A. Cunha calling to investigate Patrick's use of the accounts subsidize travel junkets and other questionable activities with taxpayers money from 2009 to 2014.

The GOP is calling on the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight to look into the use of the hidden accounts. The accounts, first reported by the Boston Herald on Wednesday, helped fund Patrick's overseas trade missions - including the cost of flight, hotels and transportation. The GOP wants detailed accounts of all deposits and expenditures from the accounts and requests that the committee "make recommendations for implementing appropriate corrective measures to ensure proper oversight and legistlative approval of similar trust accounts that utilize public dollars in the future, including regular audits of said accounts."

The filed order is requiring the committee to gather all of its findings and legislative recommendations with the Clerk of the House and the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee by September 9, 2015.

House Republican leadership also requested that Inspector General Cunha's office conduct its own investigation into the matter. In the letter to Cunha, House Republican leadership stated that the Herald's findings " warrant a thorough investigation" by Cunha's office.

The letter was signed by House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-North Reading) and Representatives Paul Frost (R-Auburn), Brad Hill (R-Ipswich), Elizabeth Poirier (R-North Attleboro), Susan Gifford (R-Wareham), and Todd Smola (R-Warren).