Madison, WI — Today, the Democrats on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee renewed their request for a comprehensive audit of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) led by Michael Gableman. Last week, the Democrats sent a letter to Joint Legislative Audit Committee Co-Chair Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) requesting an audit. Later in the week, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) announced that he had fired Michael Gableman and closed the Office of Special Counsel. The Democratic members of the Audit Committee released the following statement:
“After fourteen months of abusing over $1.3 million in taxpayer dollars, Speaker Vos has finally terminated the Office of Special Counsel and fired Michael Gableman. Unfortunately, this action comes too late, and Wisconsinites still don’t know what their $1.3 million was spent on.
“Today, our Republican colleagues are meeting behind closed doors, apparently leaving Democrats and the public in the dark again about their future plans. Wisconsin deserves answers and transparency about how their hard-earned money was spent by Michael Gableman and the Office of Special Counsel. This exploitation of taxpayer dollars cannot be swept under the rug, yet Speaker Vos tried to do just that on UpFront this past weekend, claiming that an audit accounting for these funds would be ‘political.’
“The call for an audit has earned bipartisan support, and it is clear that the people support this endeavor. That is because, for any state program that overspends its budget by as much as Gableman has at the OSC, an audit is an assumed course of action.
“As Democratic members of the Audit Committee, we are imploring Senator Cowles and all our Republican colleagues on the committee to do the right thing and thoroughly examine Gableman’s investigation.”
