Audit: Kazanjian’s 2007 campaign had accounting errors

Lowell Sun (Lowell, MA)
08/08/2009

By Jennifer Myers, jmyers@lowellsun.com

LOWELL — An audit of City Councilor Alan Kazanjian’s 2007 election
campaign by the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance
revealed a handful of accounting discrepancies, including the failure
of the campaign to disclose two contributions and the inaccurate
disclosure of receipts of $50 or less.

Additionally, the OCPF discovered that the disclosure of 25
contributions had been duplicated and that the campaign accepted a
money order for more than $50, which is against state campaign-finance
laws.

The OCPF’s summer newsletter states that "the OCPF determined that the
committee maintained adequate records and the errors were inadvertent
in nature."

Kazanjian chalks up the errors to a beginner’s mistake, given that it
was his first campaign.

"We had someone at the beginning taking care of the finances who did
not do a good job," he said. "Now Ann Sepe is handling my campaign and
sat down with the campaign-finance people and worked it all out. Now
we know there are no excuses."

"We did raise a lot of money, so there were some mistakes," Kazanjian
added. His campaign raised more than $65,000 in 2007.

Kazanjian’s campaign committee agreed to provide the OCPF with all
contributor checks until Jan. 31, 2001. The committee has also
refunded the extra $150 for the excess money order and made a $250
payment to the state’s general fund to pay for the cost of the review.

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