An audit by Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond identified several violations of Visit Orlando's agreement with Orange County.
It looked at the 2023 calendar year and made recommendations, but Diamond said the problems are apparent in other years, as well.
He argued taxpayers have a right to know how the money is spent as the tourism agency is set to receive about $100 million in Tourist Development Tax money this year.
The biggest concern was the misclassification of at least $3.5 million of tax money as private funds, Diamond said. "Why does that matter? Because private funds have no strings attached. You can spend it on anything you want, and you don't have to tell anybody how you spent it."
The audit finds that that money should be reimbursed into Visit Orlando’s TDT bank account to be used on tourism promotion. There’s also uncertainty about other commingled funds.
The audit also found a failed procurement policy, bogus return-on-investment calculations and taxes spent on ineligible expenditures, like a car allowance for the CEO and skyboxes at the Kia Center used mostly by Visit Orlando members, staff and elected officials.
The audit faults the county's oversight, and Diamond said it has agreed to address that. He said it also needs to look at other years since 2019.
"Orange County needs to make sure that Visit Orlando corrects their records," Diamond said, "so that all that money will be spent transparently and according to the rules and shouldn't be considered as private money."
"As a long-standing partner with Orange County, Visit Orlando worked collaboratively with the Comptroller’s team to complete their current audit of our organization," the organization said in a prepared statement. "We thank the Comptroller’s Office and are proud of our ongoing commitment to transparency and financial accountability."
The tourism agency said it has implemented some of the requests but had reservations about some of the findings.
