Attorney General George Jepsen says he is ending an investigation into alleged mishandling of charitable funds by the Connecticut Humane Society in Newington without pursuing action against the society.
“We found that all transactions between CHS and affiliates of its board members were done at or below market value,” Jepsen wrote Monday in a letter to Gordon G. Willard, executive director of the society. “And there was no evidence that CHS entered into any specific financial transaction that was not related to the accomplishment of its charitable purpose,” Jepsen based in Newington.
The probe opened in February 2009 after complaints about the society’s handling of charitable funds and the quality of care being given to the animals in its facilities. An interim report about the investigation was issued in March 2010.
The nonprofit agency made several changes based on the findings.
Among those were new bylaws that separate the roles of executive director and chairman of the board of directors; establish term limits for board members and include a stricter conflict of interest policy, requiring competitive bids for any work or services that a board member seeks to provide.
CHS has also hired an animal rescue coordinator and department managers to provide better oversight of animal behavior concerns. It has also created multi-person teams in each of the society’s districts to review any euthanasia requests because of animal behavior.
