The problem is that we all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free enterprise capitalism for the poor.“ — Martin Luther King Jr.

The problems highlighted in a recent legislative audit of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) show how, all too often, taxpayers money flows to connected business interests without anyone looking to see what it is used for.

The microscopes of the Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General were trained recently on GOED (aka GOEO, the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity) and, while it noted things were improving under new management, saw examples of a disturbingly casual attitude toward accountability in the recent past.

A highlighted example of the problem involved an outfit called Utah Beef Producers. The Richfield company drew $2 million in state funds for a new beef processing plant, money allocated by the Legislature and handled through GOED. The beef operation lasted for less than two years before shutting down, leaving the state unable to account for where the money had gone.

That was just one example of how some $249 million in state funds had run through GOED into grants supposedly made to help businesses start, expand, create jobs and build taxbase, and wound up unaccounted for.

Utah had distinguished itself structuring its economic development efforts to be used only for what’s known as “post-performance” awards. That is, business creation and hiring first, state grants or tax breaks afterward.

But for this particular GOED program, the Industrial Assistance Account, the state agency lacked the details it needed to judge whether involved businesses did what they had promised to do. No budgets for new businesses, no audits for those ongoing.

GOED has a new boss, former state Rep. Jefferson Moss, who took over last year. Auditors reported that things have improved under Moss, with clear evidence that the agency has a better handle on where taxpayers money is going, for what, with necessary budgets and financial reports more often in hand.

Good. It is now up to Moss — and, his boss, Gov. Spencer Cox — to not only make sure such business-building grants are properly managed going forward, but also to pull whatever levers may be available to get missing or misspent grants from past years clawed back.

In a state where officials worry loudly about how too much money goes to the “undeserving poor,” we should be at least as worried about the money that is directed, with far too little caution, to the crony capitalists.

Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.