The Columbus Dispatch | Jim Siegel
In late November, the commerce department announced the winners of cultivator provisional licenses, but many of the unsuccessful applicants challenged the scoring and lawsuits were filed over various issues, including the selection of experts to oversee the process.
Yost’s office launched an examination of the process and uncovered errors in the score calculations impacting 13 applicants, and reviewer score sheet errors for 15 applicants. The auditor also found weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the process, such as how Commerce protected passwords and summary scoring sheets.
The auditor “found numerous instances of errors and inconsistencies in the evaluation and scoring of applicants and examples of the department acting in violation of (Ohio law),” the review said. This, it said, included issuing more provisional licenses than was allowed by law.
In a tweet, Yost said: “Rolling out a new government program doesn’t happen that often. Our audit of Commerce is a primer on how not to do it that should be read by every public executive.”