OCF: Complete audit of Bowser's mayoral campaign was not conducted
WASHINGTON - D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is facing questions about questionable campaign contributions from her 2014 mayoral campaign.
The government watchdog group Public Citizen filed a complaint Tuesday to the District's Office of Campaign Finance (OCF) alleging Muriel Bowser's 2014 mayoral campaign received $31,500 in illegal contributions that were still reflected on the contributions website.
On Wednesday, Mayor Bowser's chief of staff sent FOX 5 a letter from the Office of Campaign Finance certifying that her mayoral campaign had been properly terminated. It said in part, "We have determined that the reports and statements filed are in substantial compliance with D.C. official Code Section 1-1163.09. Therefore, the file in this matter has been closed."
This particular letter was sent to the Bowser's office a year and a half after her campaign was closed in early 2015. OCF has not said what took so long to terminate the campaign.
But when FOX 5 spoke with Mayor Bowser on Tuesday about the campaign contributions, she said, "The treasurer has responded and we have been completely audited by OCF."
However, the Office of Campaign Finance said that is not exactly true and it only completed a "periodic audit" from October 11, 2013 through December 10, 2013. In that audit of roughly two months of the two-year campaign, OCF found a number of irregularities that include more than $6,000 that went unreported, other money that was not negotiated through the bank and nearly $7,000 of expenditures in which proper documentation was not provided. Over the course of 2014, the campaign eventually submitted the corresponding documents.
The Office of Campaign Finance would not say why a broader audit was not conducted. Now, it has ten days to respond to Public Citizens' complaint.