Audit: World Trade Center Utah met its state contract deliverables; auditors want outcomes verified before a new contract
The nonprofit received about $2.2 million through two state contracts in fiscal 2025. Its GOED contract expires Dec. 31, 2026. Auditors recommended checking reported trade results and spelling out how state money is spent.
Continuing story: Auditing Utah state agencies
World Trade Center Utah “appears to have carried out the activities required” under its two state contracts and achieved their deliverables, according to a legislative audit released Sept. 15. [1]
The nonprofit received about $2.2 million in fiscal 2025: a $1.66 million direct-award pass-through appropriated by the Legislature, and a five-year Governor’s Office of Economic Development contract worth $2.35 million from 2022 through 2026, which pays $525,000 a year. The state provides about one-third of the organization’s funding, and state funding totaled nearly $7.2 million from 2021 through 2025. [1]
Reported results
The organization reports its results as “new trade opportunities,” which combine actual sales, prospective sales and actual investments reported by the businesses it works with. Auditors recommended that it follow up with businesses for documentation of completed transactions and investments, and that GOED review whether its contract measures show program effectiveness. [1]
Auditors also recommended stronger checks on required reports. At the time of the audit, no State Auditor accounting report had been filed since 2024; the organization says it has since uploaded past financial audits. [1]
Trade mission fees and the next contract
The GOED contract expires Dec. 31, 2026, and a new agreement was being negotiated during the audit. Of the $525,000 a year, $200,000 supports two trade missions. Auditors said the participation fees charged for government officials are in line with the contract, which says delegation members pay their own travel and participation fees. [1]
Auditors recommended that the new contract specify how state money is to be spent and that expenses be reported against its deliverables, to address stakeholder concerns and avoid perceptions of double funding. In its response, the organization says no activity is funded twice. [1]
CEO Jonathan Freedman accepted the recommendations addressed to the organization and said it plans to fulfill them by Dec. 31, 2026, pending conversations with GOED. [1]
The roughly $2.2 million is the amount under the two reviewed contracts, not a loss. The audit did not find double billing; avoiding double funding is a recommendation.
Sources
Reporting by The Utah Ledger from the public records above. AI-assisted, checked against those records.