The state agency that controls Utah’s liquor sales still needs to improve how it manages inventory and its financial reporting, according to a legislative audit that found long-running problems remain unresolved.
The Office of the Legislative Auditor General released the audit of the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services, or DABS, during a legislative interim committee meeting Tuesday.
“DABS management has not fully resolved long-standing issues with financial misreporting, IT systems and inventory loss in a timely manner,” the auditors wrote in their summary. The report also noted that the agency lost more than $1 million in the 2024 fiscal year — and “needs to strengthen its inventory controls and accountability measures” to prevent similar losses in the future.
DABS operates 51 state liquor stores, overseeing package stores and licensing the sale of alcoholic beverages at bars, restaurants, grocery stores, convenience stores and other businesses. Much of DABS’ revenue is earmarked for alcohol education, school lunch programs and public safety — with the remainder transferred to the state’s general fund. In the 2024 fiscal year, $113 million went to the general fund after DABS’ other expenditures, the audit reported.
The audit reported that DABS’ “lack of internal controls” prompted inaccurate financial reporting, theft and overspending. Auditors cited one egregious case, reported in the Utah State Auditor’s annual audit in April, where a single employee at one unidentified state liquor store stole more than $100,000 over a 3½-year period.
Auditors also found gaps between the amount of inventory state records say is in stock, and how much booze is actually on store shelves. That variance can happen because of theft, miscounts, misplaced bottles and clerical errors, auditors wrote.
Those errors can be expensive. In one instance, auditors wrote, a single typo from a DABS retail employee created a $600,000 fluctuation in the state’s general fund in the 2023 fiscal year — and it wasn’t corrected until the following year.
Auditors wrote that DABS was “incompetently managed” from 2010 to 2019, leading to “increased losses to the state [of Utah].” More recent management changes, particularly under former executive director Tiffany Clason, showed progress toward fixing the agency’s systemic issues, the auditors wrote.
Clason, who was appointed by Gov. Spencer Cox in 2021, left the agency in June for a private-sector job. On Clason’s last day, Cox appointed her successor, Ericka Evans, who had been the agency’s deputy director for legal and regulatory affairs.
In the agency’s response, Evans wrote that DABS’ new management is “committed to building on previous leadership’s efforts to effect operational improvements at every level.”
The agency, Evans wrote, is looking over the auditors’ recommendations on how the DABS commission oversees the agency, and examining its financial and management processes.