State Sen. Doug McCrory, tied by a critical audit earlier this week to the delivery of millions of dollars in questionable state grants through a nonprofit group in his North Hartford district, denied any wrongdoing on Thursday and said he was acting as an advocate for his constituents.
“The Department of Economic and Community Development’s audit of the Blue Hills Civic Association and subsequent reporting by members of the media has raised questions related to state oversight of public funds provided to community nonprofits,” McCrory, a senior legislative Democrat, said in a statement.
“Although I engaged in no wrongdoing,” he said, “I was mentioned in the audit because I was involved in advocating at the Legislature for resources for organizations within my district, including BHСА, and some of the organizations that received funds were criticized in the audit.”
Also Thursday, the top House Republican said the audit underscores what he called lax or nonexistent oversight of the distribution by the Democratic legislature — through state agencies — of hundreds of millions of dollars of grants, often as the result of earmarks by individual lawmakers.
“I think we do need to have a conversation about an inspector general,” said House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford. “I think we do need to bring accountability to these agencies. They need to start reporting back to us on how they are doing with our tax dollars and what results they are getting. And when it comes to third party nonprofits, I think there needs to be accountability and transparency in that process as well.”
The audit released Tuesday by the state Department of Economic and Community Development shows that tens of millions of dollars in government grants were delivered to the BHCA and redistributed to other groups with no understanding of how the money would be spent and often on instructions from McCrory.
The audit was ordered last year after the Blue Hills Civic Association belatedly reported that $300,000 in state money disappeared in 2024 through a fraudulent bank transfer. And it confirms suspicions that there has been little control over and accounting for the millions in grant dollars that have passed through the organization in recent years.
Federal authorities convened a grand jury investigation last summer which has served subpoenas directed at many of the issues raised in the audit. Among those in whom the grand jury has shown interest are McCrory and his close personal friend Sonserae Cicero-Hamlin, whose nonprofit consulting group SHEBA received more than $1 million from BHCA. Subpoenas are requests for information, not accusations of wrongdoing.
“The forensic audit of BHCA reveals pervasive governance failures, systemic internal control weaknesses, and patterns of conduct that strongly suggest potential fraud and misappropriation of public funds by BHCA and related parties,” wrote the state’s auditors, CliftonAllenLarson of West Hartford.
To the extent that they were able, because of incomplete or non-existent records, the auditors examined McCrory’s outsized role in deciding to which organizations it would disburse the $5.5 million in state funds it received annually during the audit period and in what amounts. McCrory‘s role in deciding who benefitted from millions in charitable giving was described by the Courant last summer.
“Once the subrecipients for both FY’24 and FY’25 Legislative Grants were communicated to BHCA by Senator McCrory, it does not appear that BHCA conducted any due diligence into the selected organizations,” the audit reported.
In his statement, McCrory agreed that oversight of grant distribution by the state should be strengthened, but he warned in must be done “carefully and fairly, without creating unnecessary red tape that blocks resources from reaching residents that need them the most.”
“First, the DECD audit makes clear that stronger oversight is needed to ensure that public funds are managed responsibly and effectively,” he said. “I agree with this goal and will be supportive of reasonable measures to achieve it.”
“At the same time, I also feel strongly that we need to recognize that nonprofit organizations are essential partners in our communities, delivering youth programs, job training, housing assistance, and other critical services that families in my district and across Connecticut rely on every day.”
Gov. Ned Lamont, responding to questions from reporters earlier this week, stopped short of calling for McCrory, who represents North Hartford and part of Bloomfield, to resign from the Senate, but urged him to step back from his leadership role. As Senate co-chairman of the legislature’s education committee, McCrory is involved in directing hundreds of millions of dollars in school funding.
McCrory’s legislative colleagues were mostly silent on his role in the General Assembly.
“I’m more concerned with the report and the fact that it pointed to systemic lapses in checks and balances,” Candelora said. “And obviously being in a state with one party rule, I think that is problematic, because regardless of who is in office, we need to be promoting good government and transparency.”
Among Candelora’s complaints was the elimination of an appropriations subcommittee on accountability that tracked legislative earmarks.
“I think we need to build a backstop,” he said.
Federal prosecutors won’t discuss the grand jury investigation, which has collected records from a half dozen or so Hartford area nonprofits and charities that received money from the BHCA, once one of Hartford’s premier charitable organizations. It was closed when the state learned of the fraudulent wire transfer and missing $300,000.
In addition to examining how BHCA distributes money directly to charitable organizations, the auditors were critical of indirect transfers, by which BHCA transferred money indirectly through secondary, or pass through organizations.
In those cases, the auditors said it became more difficult to determine who was responsible for determining the funds were spent properly. The audit report said Cicero-Hamlin’s SHEBA organization was the beneficiary of such indirect transfers.
The audit of the charitable distribution of state grants is scheduled to continue, according to the audit report. The auditors said the next phase will focus on obtaining and examining financial documents from the groups to which BHCA distributed state money
“The purpose of these additional procedures is to verify subrecipient spending, assess compliance with grant requirements, and determine whether additional unsupported, unallowable, or potentially fraudulent transactions occurred,” the auditors said.