Commodity Organizations

MDARD has legal, fiscal and program oversight responsibility for 15 legislatively established commodity boards that have producer check-offs or producer assessments. The Director is a non-voting member of these entities, which are administratively housed within the Department as component units of state government, but they are independent, and their producer funded budgets are not part of the state appropriations process. Oversight responsibility includes:

• Ensuring the Michigan Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act are being followed at the check-off boards.
• Ensuring funds are being used according to industry adopted programs and in compliance with State of Michigan statutory financial and generally accepted accounting standards.
• Reviewing all commodity audits and providing a written review of the audits provided to ensure financial soundness and compliance with generally accepted accounting standards.