America’s worst press spokesman TRIES to defend his beleaguered boss.

And you thought ol’ Karine at The White House was bad.

We started looking at Balanced Nutrition in early-to-mid 2023. There’s evidence to suggest state authorities were looking at it as early as 2020 — maybe earlier.

The Mark Robinson campaign does not even try to defend against or explain the details of the recently completed financial review of Balanced Nutrition.  (The DHHS report told us that Yolanda Hill – Mark Robinson’s wife’ — “confirmed” submitting claims for reimbursement to the state in the name of one of her clients that had not sought reimbursement.)

Nope. Instead we get a mish-mash of name-calling and outburst of phrases like “Old News” and “Democrat tricks.”  How about addressing the accuracy and integrity of Balanced Nutrition’s work and DHHS’s findings about that work? 

You may remember one of the Robinson campaign spokesman’s “greatest hits” of the 2024 campaign.  News broke about Yolanda Hill and Mark Robinson being taken to court for eviction from a Greensboro house by their elderly landlord. (The old man’s wife was dying of cancer at the time.) The Robinson campaign spokesman, when asked WHY the couple never paid the $2000 debt they stuck their landlord with, replied that the debt was not paid because the old man didn’t sue to recover the debt. (*Nice.*)

Here’s Robinson’s spokes-parrot spinning today to WRAL:

[…] Mark Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign disputed findings made by a North Carolina agency that a nonprofit run by his wife must repay the state more than $130,000, calling the findings “politically motivated.”

Monday’s statement was the campaign’s first since the state Department of Health and Human Services began releasing findings in the case last week. Meanwhile, the state said Monday that it is in contact with the federal government regarding the nonprofit, called Balanced Nutrition

Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor, is the Republican nominee for governor. His wife, Yolanda Hill, shut the government-funded nonprofit this year amid the state’s investigation into questions about its finances and other alleged violations.

The Department of Health and Human Services said last week that Balanced Nutrition, which helped child care facilities get federal funding for nutrition programs, submitted excess claims for funding, which it now must pay back. The allegations include findings such as submitting multiple claims for the same receipt, or inflating costs it could then be reimbursed for.

“These findings are politically motivated at the core,” Robinson campaign spokesman Mike Lonergan said in a statement on Monday. “Last year, an independent auditor issued a report on Balanced Nutrition, Inc. (BNI) with no material findings. Yet as soon as Mark Robinson announced his campaign for governor in April 2023, the Democrat-run state agency started moving the goalposts.” […] 

Okay.  Let’s talk about the “independent audit.  We wrote about it here.

First, the only BAS audit we could find in Balanced Nutrition‘s records on file at DHHS ONLY dealt with calendar year 2021. (We got our hands on that in June 2023.). The recent DHHS report dealt with nine clients and the first three months of 2024.  Balanced Nutrition contracted with NC DHHS from 2017 through April 2024.  Tip of the ol’ iceberg.

Second, there were serious, six-figure inconsistencies between what the “independent” audit said and what Balanced Nutrition reported to the IRS.

Third, there are two main types of audits.  One type, which most of us are familiar with, simply ensures that all the accounting is laid out in the correct format and line item.  Another matches each number on the financials with actual invoices, assets, etc. It appears the BAS audit was of the first type. It appears that DHHS followed the second path in their recently completed review, and would likely continue down that path should the investigation be expanded.

Robinson’s man goes on and on about a vendetta by the state Department of Health and Human Services.  He claims the agency got interested only after Robinson announced for governor.  Robinson’s ambitions to run for governor were the worst kept secret in Raleigh.  His plans were being talked about right after he was sworn in as lieutenant governor.

We had been hearing about Balanced Nutrition ever since Robinson was sworn in.  We started writing about the business in early 2023. Team Robinson chose to ignore us — only bothering to speak up when DHHS turned up the heat, the polls started turning south, and donors got ‘concerned.’

The state went as far as placing Balanced Nutrition on its official ‘Do Not Pay’ list in July 2021. There HAD to be some investigation prior to that decision.    SO, there is a possibility the ‘Do Not Pay’ decision was discussed and investigated before Robinson got elected in November 2020  or even took office.

And this nonsense about “Democrat tricks”?  Democrats aren’t interested in stuff like Balanced Nutrition.  All they want to talk about are gays, abortions and what Robinson says about that stuff on social media.  Unless you’re counting WRAL or WUNC as  Democrat operations, we’re not aware of any leftist entity taking a serious interest in the Balanced Nutrition story.

It appears we might be in store for even more squawking from the Robinson campaign press office.  DHHS has apparently contacted the feds about Balanced Nutrition:

[…] Last week, DHHS published a report alleging numerous violations made by Balanced Nutrition. That report outlined possible erroneous billing issues and possible record-keeping, bookkeeping and monitoring violations. It also alleges that Hill improperly hired a family member.

Tonizzo said the agency on Friday sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture a copy of a notice issued to Balanced Nutrition. “It is standard practice to provide an email copy of any notice of serious deficiency to the Southeast regional office of the United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service,” Tonizzo said.[…]