Let's Remember: MOHELA Audit is Result of Corrupt Blunt Hush Money Payouts

Reading the various news stories covering the just released state audit of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, one might struggle to remember what the audit was all about in the first place.  But we shouldn't forget.  This audit is about preventing future corrupt abuses of power like the one Matt Blunt perpetrated last summer.

Almost a year ago --on the tails of some top-notch reporting by the dean of Missouri political reporters, Terry Ganey-- it became clear that an audit of MOHELA was needed because Governor Matt Blunt forced out several MOHELA officials for their opposition to his proposed sale of the agency's assets.  After firing one official, Blunt subsequently paid him an exorbitant amount in hush money in an attempt to buy his silence.  Such acts are the things for which audits were made.

You'd think reporters might focus on the most salient facets of the audit, in particular the way the state's chief executive used millions in MOHELA funds to cover up the politically motivated firings at the agency.  You'd be wrong.  Instead, we get to hear most prominently about how MOHELA spent $12,000 on an annual retreat and the cost of its headquarters building.

A cynical observer might note that it seems as though the press is insulating Matt Blunt from the consequences of his own actions in their stories about the MOHELA audit.  Look at how they write those stories...

The Post-Dispatch story mentions the figure of $2.3 million in payouts to former MOHELA execs only the the story's sixteenth graf, buried well beneath the dismissive excuses of the current MOHELA leadership.  This story never mentions Blunt's involvement in the firing of Michael Cummins or the subsequent hush money payout.

The Kansas City Star's version is somewhat better but still deficient, mentioning the $2 million-plus in payouts in the fourteenth graf, but even then referring to "four former executives who quit or resigned."  To Tim Hoover's credit, he does include a line about an executive director being fired after "voicing objections to Blunt's plan," but it's silent on who might have fired that director.

The Associated Press story largely tracks with the Star's piece, putting off any mention of fired executives and outrageous payouts until the fourteenth graf, and even then referring to Cummins' firing without placing responsibility for the act. 

The audit of MOHELA, with all the excesses it identified, is undoubtedly a good thing.  But its tales of profligate spending on things like retreats and vacations should not be allowed to cover up the most malicious misuses of the agency's assets.  The fact is that our state's highest ranking elected official --a man in whom, unlike MOHELA's execs, the people have placed their explicit trust-- fired MOHELA officials for their political opposition and then raided MOHELA's treasury to pay them off and quiet them down.  That this is not the overarching focus of every story written about the audit is a grave disservice to the taxpayers of Missouri.