N.C. Lawmakers Want More Oversight of Nonprofit Finances

North Carolina legislators are calling for tighter restrictions on how nonprofits receive and account for taxpayer funds following a critical audit of an organization that collected millions of dollars in interest in on unused state allocations, reports the Charlotte Observer.

Members of the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Committee, a watchdog body, asked staff to draw up new regulations after hearing the results of a review of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, to which lawmakers cut off funding last month.

The audit found that the center, which has received $650-million in taxpayer funds in the past 26 years, did not meet grant-reporting requirements and overpaid its president, among other things. Legislators also complained that the organization earned $20-million in interest on state money as it sat unused in bank accounts.