The Corporation for Public Broadcasting should require repayments and reduce grant funding to WTVP to the tune of $198,663 after the station overreported its financial support by more than a million dollars.
That's one of the recommendations of the CPB's inspector general in an exhaustive 83-page audit of the station released Monday.
This comes after a difficult year for the Peoria-based PBS station in the aftermath of a financial scandal that forced painful cuts and an overhaul of station leadership from the board level down.
The CPB is a private, not-for-profit entity funded by Congress. It passes through that money to local NPR and PBS member stations around the country, using a station's level of non-federal financial support to calculate how much Community Service Grant (CSG) funding should be doled out.
The inspector general found WTVP overreported some $1.02 million in non-federal financial support from July 2020 through June 2023, leading the CPB to potentially overpay the station $130,873 in CSG funding.
The audit also found WTVP misspent $67,790 in CPB grant funds on unauthorized expenses, unrelated business expenses, or expenses lacking adequate documentation.
The station's Community Service Grant expenditures were also incorrectly reported in the annual financial reports for each fiscal year examined, the audit found.
The former board of directors also failed to make readily available required public information about open and closed meetings and financial records, the audit found. There were also problems complying with Community Advisory Board requirements.
Community Service Grants are a major source of support for public media stations. WTVP received some $2.66 million in CSG funds from the CPB in fiscal years 2021-23.
WTVP's fiscal year 2024 CSG was withheld after questions about the station's accounting practices under former president and CEO Lesley Matuszak cropped up. A subsequent Peoria Police Department investigation found there would be probable cause to arrest Matuszak for forgery and embezzlement, had she not taken her own life in September 2023. The Illinois Attorney General's Office still has an active investigation ongoing.
The inspector general says the CPB should monitor the station's financial performance and annual financial reporting for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 if future grants are awarded. It's also recommended that WTVP is required to fully comply with all meeting and financial disclosure requirements, accurately report Community Service Grant spending, and identify and implement new spending controls and other corrective actions.
The CPB ultimately makes the final call on how to proceed.
In a seven-page response letter dated Sept. 3, current WTVP president and CEO Jenn Gordon said the station agrees with all of the inspector general's findings.
"This whole process was helpful," Gordon told WCBU on Wednesday. She said most of the overhauls recommended by the inspector general are already implemented by the station, and WTVP intends to adopt all of them.
Gordon came on board in March 2024, a couple months after most of the board of directors serving at the time of Matuszak's tenure abruptly resigned. Several new board members joined, including chairman John Wieland. An anonymous $1.2 million financial commitment intended to shore up the station's shaky fiscal house was also announced at that time.
The station has also hired a new finance director, Steve Hobbs.
Gordon said the station is ultimately beholden to the CPB's timeline on the release of the withheld CSG funds now that the audit is completed, but she's hopeful WTVP will still be awarded the money.
A CPB official said the audit findings are undergoing a careful review. The spokesperson said the CPB typically take no longer than 180 days to provide an audit determination letter. A draft determination letter should be issued within 90 days, they said.
