A staggering $961,000 worth of liquor has mysteriously vanished from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission's (MLCC) inventory, according to an audit highlighted by The Detroit News. This eyebrow-raising shortage represented a considerable 20% of the $4.9 million inventory recorded between January and February 2022, and it wasn't due to a break-in or a heist, but to, what appears to be, a glaring gap in inventory tracking.
Auditor General Doug Ringler's office, which conducted the review of records from 2019 through 2022, pinpointed this as only one of several "material conditions" that led them to rate the commission's overall performance as "not sufficient." According to a report by the Detroit Free Press, the missing bottles were supplied by vendors, meaning the state had to refund them for the roughly 62,000 bottles they had purchased, but couldn't locate to deliver to retailers.
The audit also revealed that the commission hadn't reconciled sales with purchases to figure out if they were stocking correctly, a lynchpin process in confirming inventory numbers' accuracy. In one particularly baffling instance, the commission purchased over 12,000 bottles of certain booze, only selling about 1,100, and then sat on an astonishing surplus of 11,000 unused bottles for 48 weeks. Information from The Detroit News disclosed that such mismanagement led to both excessive and negative inventory balances, with 520 different spirit products showing red flags with 31% due to distributor changes that weren't reconciled.
But the state's booze blunders don't end with misplaced Margarita makings. A total of four liquor licenses were incorrectly issued for use in dry communities, where local rules prohibit the sale of spirits. "There are clearly deep issues within the commission that must be addressed," State Rep. Tom Kunse told Michigan House Republicans, critiquing the MLCC's failure to keep proper tabs on spiraling out-of-control spirit sales and misplaced stockpile.
The MLCC is now facing the music with calls for reform echoing in the legislative halls, while the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs says it's on a course of continuous improvement, aiming to shore up its IT systems and revamping processes to prevent another fiscal hangover. As for the general public, they remain mere spectators to the state's logistical snafu, undoubtedly with a cocktail of concerns about where their tax dollars are flowing or, in this case, spilling.
