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****PRELIMINARY AND TENTATIVE FINDINGS**** General Counsel have also received benefits such as additional annual leave and contributions to retirement health savings accounts that are not afforded to other FMPA employees. While the Board has documented this process for the CEO through the establishment of a contract and associated amendments, no contract has been established for the General Counsel; rather, the General Counsel's compensation package has been established pursuant to a series of Board -approved motions spread over several years, making it difficult to identify all benefits provided. For example, the General Counsel's annual leave is not subject to the cap established for regular employees in the Manual, however, although requested, FMPA personnel did not provide us Board minutes evidencing the Board action that exempted the General Counsel from caps on annual leave accrual. While Board minutes from September 17, 2010, clearly indicate that the Board was aware that the General Counsel could earn unlimited annual leave, lack of a contract enumerating compensation provisions creates difficulty in verifying that the General Counsel's pay and benefits are in accordance with the Board's intent and increases the risk of error due to inability to locate Board motions establishing specific aspects of salary and benefits and misinterpretation of same. Recommendation: The FMPA should enter into a contract with the General Counsel encompassing all Board -approved compensation arrangements cumulatively provided to the General Counsel and implement any further compensation changes as contract amendments. Finding No. 7: Severance Pay and Benefits As indicated in finding No. 5, the Board sets the CEO's compensation package based upon a Board -approved contract and amendments thereto. Paragraph 3(d) of the contract in effect as of September 30, 2014, indicated that the CEO would receive six months of base salary if terminated for cause. Under these contract provisions, if the CEO was terminated with cause as of September 30, 2014, the CEO would have received a one-time payout equal to 50 percent of his annual salary, totaling $137,500. Contract provisions also indicate that certain healthcare benefits are to be retained after termination for a certain number of months based upon the termination date. The contract provides that the FMPA will either pay for, or reimburse, the CEO's health insurance premiums for life and fund the CEO's health reimbursement account (HRA) for life. The current annual costs of health insurance and HRA contributions, to be provided for life, are $4,946 and $9,400, respectively. While including severance compensation and postretirement benefits in the CEO's employment contract for termination without cause may serve a valid business purpose, it is not apparent why the FMPA would extend these provisions to instances in which the CEO is terminated for cause. Recommendation: The FMPA should consider amending the CEO's contract to remove any severance compensation and postretirement benefits associated with termination for cause. Procurement of Goods and Services Finding No. 8: Questioned Expenditures Expenditures of public funds must be shown to be authorized by applicable law or resolution; reasonable in the circumstances and necessary to the accomplishment of authorized purposes of the governmental unit; and in pursuit of a public, rather than a private, purpose. The Attorney General has indicated on numerous occasions that documentation of an expenditure in sufficient detail to establish the authorized public purpose served, and how that 17 19