As Paul Kane and Dan Eggen point out in today's Washington Post, the NRCC raised and spent $630 million over the last seven years with virtually no oversight. It is certainly no wonder that a lot of money seems to be missing and now the NRCC is pointing the finger at Christopher J. Ward, former NRCC treasurer, as the culprit.
I'm not ready to buy the theory that Ward was a lone gunman. The NRCC appears to have intentionally destroyed internal controls and removed outside oversight of its finances.
Here is the timeline:
1999-2006
The NRCC waived rules requiring the executive committee — made up of elected leaders and rank-and-file Republican lawmakers — to sign off on expenditures exceeding $10,000, merged the various department budgets into a single account and rolled back a prohibition on committee staff earning an income from outside companies.
Early 2003:
Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) is appointed NRCC chairman and Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) is appointed NRCC audit committee chairman.
Long time NRCC treasurer, Donna M. Andersen, is fired and replaced by Christopher J. Ward.
Between 2003 and early 2004:
Reynolds and/or Walden and/or Ward fire Deloitte & Touche, a reputable Big Four accounting firm. D&T is not replaced.
October 2006:
The NRCC borrows $9 million from Wachovia Bank. As part of the loan agreement, the NRCC probably provided forged audit reports to the bank.
Early 2007:
Rep. K. Michael "Mike Conaway (TX), a CPA, is appointed NRCC audit committee chairman. Conaway is a long time friend of GW Bush and was CFO of Arbusto Energy. He owes his House seat to Tom DeLay's redistricting scheme.
August 2007:
NRCC treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, is replaced by his long time associate, Christopher T. Parana. Ward continues to bill NRCC for consulting fees.
January 2007:
Ward confesses to the forged audit reports after Conaway presses him for a meeting with tnon-existent auditors.
NRCC calls in the FBI.
February 2007:
The NRCC makes first public announcement about the investigation.
Parana is transferred from NRCC treasurer spot to another assignment within the NRCC.
March 2007:
Philip Shenon in the New York Times reports that hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing and presumed stolen from the NRCC.
Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Walden is getting a free pass from the Washington Post and the New York Times. As audit committee chairman, he is supposed to meet with the outside auditors at least annually.
It looks like Walden has decided to play dumb. From The Oregonian:
And Rep. Greg Walden -- Oregon's lone Republican in the U.S. House -- took a hit last week when Roll Call reported the National Republican Congressional Committee failed to conduct audits for the past five years. From 2003 through 2006, Walden chaired the NRCC's audit committee.
(On Monday, Walden said he tried several times to meet with the outside auditors and was stiff-armed by committee staff. "We just got spun, frankly," he said. On reports that the committee chairman, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., has called for an investigation into potential fraud, Walden noted, "Were the audits real? Was money misappropriated? Or was it sloppy bookkeeping? Those are the questions that are being asked.")
CQ Politics had a good rundown on some of the other PACs managed by Ward. LOL - Ward was even treasurer of the 2005 President's Dinner Committee.
More to come.
