A week after Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius defended holding a reception at the governor's mansion for Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, Prime Buzz has learned the state did get reimbursed for the dinner - but only 10 days ago, more than a year after the reception.

The reception was an auction prize donated by Sebelius to help the Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus at its 2005 Torch Dinner fundraiser. Tiller was the winning bidder with $2,500.

Because the April 9, 2007 reception was a political event, Sebelius said last week that the Women's Political Caucus reimbursed the state for the $848 in food and wine.

They did - on May 23 of this year, only after Sebelius' staff realized that no payment had been received.

"Once our office started looking into records surrounding this auction reception it was determined that the policy in place for reimbursement on political events was not followed due to staff turnover and the length of time between the purchase of the auction item (September, 2005) and the date the reception was scheduled (April, 2007)," reads the explanation from Sebelius' spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran.

 

"After we verified the amount of funds the Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus still owed the state, we contacted their organization and they issued a check to reimburse the funds."

 

Corcoran said the administration is now reviewing all past political events to ensure reimbursement. So far, Corcoran said, no other errors of this type have surfaced, and an additional staffer will review such bills in the future.