“The inability of CCC staff to implement a key commission initiative should have been readily apparent to supervisors and commissioners.”
By Bhaamati Borkhetaria, CommonWealth Beacon
Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro called on the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) to conduct an audit following the commission’s failure to collect approximately $550,000 in licensing fees since August 2022.
In a letter to Travis Ahern, the newly appointed executive director, Bruce Stebbins, and the acting commission chair, Shapiro wrote that the agency’s failure to collect fees is an “egregious operational breakdown” that suggests “poor business practices and oversight.”
In August 2024, the commission publicly admitted to failing to collect $555,671 in license renewal extension fees. The commissioners began to allow license extensions of up to 120 days in August 2022 and directed the staff to collect prorated license fees to cover the extension. The commission failed to collect those extension fees.
Shapiro also found that the commission staff was granting extensions prior to the commission’s August 2022 vote without having the authority to do so.
“The inability of CCC staff to implement a key commission initiative should have been readily apparent to supervisors and commissioners in real time,” Shapiro said in a press release.
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