Lawmakers approve audits of state Department of Commerce
Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday approved multiple state audits into the Kansas Department of Commerce following the death of Jonathan L. Clayton, the former agency official suspected of embezzlement who died in a single-car crash last month.
The Kansas Legislative Post Audit Committee signed off on an audit into the process used to award the first round of the Building a Stronger Economy, or BASE, grants. Lawmakers also decided to move forward with an audit into the pre-employment screening process used by Commerce to vet job applicants working with financial matters.
Clayton went missing in early August and was found weeks later. He is suspected of having embezzled BASE grant funds while managing grant funds after leaving the agency in 2023.
In an email purportedly sent after his death, Clayton, who was Commerce’s director of economic recovery, alleged he played a role in manipulating applicant scores at the direction of Democratic Lt. Gov. David Toland. Commerce has denied the allegations.
Clayton was hired by the agency in 2020, first as a project manager, despite having pleaded guilty to financial felony crimes in Pennsylvania. The agency has said it didn’t know about his criminal record at the time.
Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican, told the committee that he had spoken with a former military officer, who he didn’t identify, who had helped investigate personnel backgrounds.
“He said it should have been very easy to find this,” Thompson said.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has already said state law should be changed to make it easier to conduct criminal background checks. State law must authorize specific positions to seek national checks from the FBI – the positions held by Clayton weren’t on the list.
“I think what this is going to
expose is us as a legislature need to open that list up so that more of these positions can use that database,” Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican who chairs the committee, said.
Commerce has also initiated an outside investigation into the BASE grant awards process.
How long that review will take, or whether the results will be publicly released, isn’t clear.
The Post Audit Committee also approved a third audit, which will look at a specific BASE grant award to a company that has said it intends to operate in Great Bend. The audit request came from Rep. Tory Marie Blew, a Great Bend Republican, who voiced concerns that the business doesn’t appear to have begun operating in the city.
The audits were listed as consent items by the committee, meaning they were approved without formal votes because no lawmakers objected.