Audit finds problems managing alcohol warehouse contract

RALEIGH, N.C. — An audit has found North Carolina’s state-run wholesale and retail liquor distribution agency poorly managed its outside warehouse contract, leading to $11 million in additional costs covering over a decade.

State Auditor Beth Wood’s office released Thursday a performance review of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission’s contract with the company paid to run ABC warehousing, Columbia, Maryland-based LB&B Associates Inc. The liquor comes from licensed distillers and is held before getting shipped to local ABC stores.

Report authors say the commission failed to ensure annual contract price increases didn’t exceed allowable amounts and failed to examine if increases were reasonable. They also found the state could have saved $2 million if they hadn’t leased unnecessary space at a Clayton warehouse and that $300,000 in underpayments to the state were undetected.

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