WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry today released the following statement after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was officially found in violation of the Antideficiency Act with regard to multi-year leasing contracts.
CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad on Friday sent a letter to President Obama officially admitting guilt to Antideficiency Act violations from fiscal years 1995 to 2015.
“After a year of grappling with the issue, I’m pleased to see the CFTC has finally decided to take responsibility for its unlawful actions,” said Chairman Roberts. “I look forward to the CFTC putting the issue behind it and working with the CFTC under a new Chairman to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I thank Senator Boozman and Congressman Aderholt for bringing these wrongdoings to light by way of a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.”
On two separate occasions, Chairman Roberts called on the CFTC to address its errant accounting practices. In February 2016, one day before the GAO issued its report, Chairman Roberts sent a letter to Chairman Massad calling for answers on CFTC’s misguided accounting practices after the Office of the Inspector General released an audit report on the CFTC’s financial statements, which raised serious questions about CFTC’s leasing and accounting practices. In December 2016, due to CFTC’s silence on the issue, Chairman Roberts sent another letter to Chairman Massad pressing for more answers. The CFTC’s admission of the violation came nearly a month later.
-30-