GREG MARKKANEN

IRON MOUNTAIN — An audit that found the Michigan Liquor Control Commission was unable to account for more than 62,000 bottles of spirits in early 2022 points to “widespread failures” that must be addressed, an Upper Peninsula state lawmaker says.

The value of the missing bottles totaled nearly $1 million, more than 20% of MLCC’s total inventory, state Rep. Greg Markkanen said in a news release.

“Prohibition ended almost 100 years ago, but alcohol in Michigan is still turning up missing,” said Markkanen, R-Hancock, whose district includes part of Dickinson and all of Iron counties. “We all know Al Capone spent a lot of time in the Upper Peninsula, but some folks at the MLCC may be embracing that history a bit too much. Auditors uncovered widespread failures that cannot continue. There must be consequences when state departments lose taxpayer dollars and fail to report those losses to the public.”

The Office of the Auditor General uncovered widespread mismanagement within the commission, which is made up of five unelected governor appointees, Markkanen said.

According to The Detroit News, the missing inventory between January and February 2022, which had been supplied by vendors, meant the commission was forced to refund the vendors for the roughly 62,000 bottles of spirits, worth about $961,000, that the state had purchased but couldn’t find to deliver to retailers.

MLCC manages spirit products by facilitating sales through authorized distribution agents using 11 state-owned warehouses. The OAG revealed that the MLCC failed to keep adequate sale and purchase records, Markkanen said.

From February 2021 to August 2022, $1.1 billion in spirit orders were not filed in the state’s online ordering system, according to the audit.

Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs generally agreed with the audit’s findings and said it was modernizing its information technology systems, improving its processes for recording orders and seeking to fill a vacant auditor position, The Detroit News reported Tuesday.

“This position will further MLCC’s goal of continuous improvement over applicable controls and monitoring activities,” the audit states.

The report comes as Michigan Auditor General Doug Ringler says Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has proposed cutting his department’s budget by 28% for the upcoming fiscal year.

Markkanen was highly critical of that move, saying, “In a year where the state is seemingly able to throw money at everything that moves, the governor needs to explain why she’s proposing cutting the only executive agency that safeguards taxpayers’ dollars.”

Some Democrats have accused the OAG under Ringler of straying from its nonpartisan status and taking cues from Republican leadership, a charge that Ringler denies.