![]() ![]() The donations paid funeral expenses of storm victims and helped affected homeowners, renters and farmers. The state GOP said it raised questions about how Beshear's administration had been using the funds.īeshear stoutly defended the funds' management Thursday, saying: “Every transaction, every check, every cent is accounted for and where it’s been sent.” He has said the funds made it possible to respond quickly to help people in dire need. Kentucky Republicans pounced on the reports of misdirected payments to attack Beshear. Those amounts, he said, added up to a fraction of the total assistance. The Lexington Herald-Leader and WPSD-TV reported on the misdirected checks.Īt the time, Beshear pointed to errors in data provided to his administration as the reason any checks were sent out erroneously. After the state Public Protection Cabinet issued more than $10 million in $1,000 increments from a relief fund, reports surfaced that some people unaffected by the tornadoes were mistakenly sent payments. This isn't the first time the Beshear administration's handling of disaster relief funds has come under scrutiny. The review will examine how the separate funds were managed during an approximately 18-month period through the end of June this year. The auditor's office said in its announcement that it will conduct a special examination of the Beshear administration's “acceptance, administration and expenditure” of donated relief funds after tornadoes ravaged parts of western Kentucky in late 2021 and floods inundated the state's Appalachian region last summer. Beshear, who was front and center after the storms hit and has been widely praised for mobilizing support for the stricken regions, called the timing of the review “grossly political.” The review, announced Thursday by the state auditor's office, comes in the midst of the state's heated gubernatorial campaign and has the potential to raise questions about what has widely been a strength for Gov. Governor Andy Beshear continues to steer Kentucky through a global pandemic, focusing on keeping our people safe and saving lives, rebuilding our economy in every corner of the commonwealth and protecting our most vulnerable. Disaster recovery funds set up by Kentucky's Democratic governor to assist victims of tornadoes and flooding will be scrutinized by the state auditor's office at the request of a Republican-led legislative panel, a decision fraught with political undertones. ![]()
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