The Idaho state controller’s office has released its audit of travel records of former state Historical Society Director Steve Guerber, who resigned recently after a legislative audit of just a small portion of the agency’s records showed $700 in improper travel or meal payments to Guerber. The results: $5,468 in improper payments to Guerber were identified over a five-year period, state Controller Keith Johnson said today.

Guerber has denied any wrongdoing and maintained the overpayments identified earlier were unintentional; Johnson said the audit showed a “regrettable” lapse in accounting at the state agency. He said he will turn the audit over to local prosecutors.

The Associated Press reported that Guerber, who resigned earlier this month from a post he’d held 10 years, has already returned $633 and plans to repay the remaining $4,800. Guerber said he was “overcompensated because of accounting errors and technical noncompliance with complicated regulations.” Plus, he said the audit turned up additional money he’s now due from the state. “I will ask the state to reimburse me or offset the $1,700 in lawful public expenses which we discovered during this process that I had failed to claim over the last five years,” he said in a statement.

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