Pennsylvania auditor initiates probe of state investment program

By Natalie Kapustik | The Center Square contributor

HARRISBURG, PA – Pennsylvania Auditor General Tim DeFoor announced recently that he has launched an audit of certain transactions authorized by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority in response to a resolution created more than three years ago by state Rep. Martin Causer, R-Annin Township.

In 2018, House Resolution 948 was introduced due to concerns over PENNVEST’s approval of two low-interest loans totaling nearly $51 million for a New Hampshire-based company to purchase more than 60,000 acres of private forest land in Cameron, Clinton, Elk, Jefferson, McKean and Potter counties.

Causer’s resolution seeking an audit received unanimous approval in 2018, but then-Auditor General Eugene DePasquale did not conduct the audit during the remaining two years of his term.

“I appreciate Auditor General DeFoor’s attention to this important matter,” said Rep. John Lawrence, R-West Grove, in a news release. “The people of Pennsylvania deserve to know why a private equity company received a $51 million low-interest PENNVEST loan to purchase forest land, when the clear mission of PENNVEST is to fund municipal water and sewer projects.”