Delaware State Auditor Lydia York’s office released its audit of the Diamond State Port Corporation Thursday, flagging several issues.
The report said DSPC didn’t enforce its contract with the initial port operator Gulftainer adequately, leading to unpaid delinquent funds. It also noted the move to a new port operator, Enstructure, was an additional unexpected expenditure.
The Port Corporation claimed the auditor’s findings are inaccurate.
York said her office doesn’t plan to support civil or criminal charges using the findings of the report.
“There's nothing we can do statutorily,” York said. “But I think that our work is always geared toward process improvement, and what we want is better process.”
The Delaware State Senate supported additional funds going toward the Auditor’s office for operation costs to do work like this audit, according to a release from Delaware State Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola and State Sen. Darius Brown.
“Today’s announcement confirms that transfer was fully lawful and affirms the Legislature has an important role — alongside the Governor — to ensure the Edgemoor Port project can fulfill its promise as the most transformational economic development project in the history of our State,” the statement read.
That project has had a few setbacks that cost the DSPC, including when DNREC regulators discovered the Edgemoor site was being used to store 10 thousand tons of tires.
It took $2 million from the corporation’s allotted taxpayer dollars to remove the tires from the area.
York undertook the audit in January after Bethany Hall-Long – during her two week stint as Governor before Matt Meyer’s swearing in – oversaw the moving of about $200 million in state funds to the Port Corporation for its planned Edgemoor container facility expansion.
York said at the time it’s not normal to have an instant transfer of that size.
The audit covered July 2021 through June 2025 and the results released Thursday found several issues with DSPC spending and decisionmaking, including a lack of transparency and unplanned costs.
Sokola and Brown added Gov. Matt Meyer publicly objected to the transfer in his first days in office because it gave the legislature more agency over the port.
Meyer did not offer a comment Thursday.
“I think that to the extent that management has responded that they have additional documentation, they should share that with the public…” York said. “I think what I would really have want them to do is to do better in the future.”
The report also found GT USA, the initial port operator contracted by the state, did not pay back its delinquent concession payments when they cut ties with the Port of Wilmington.
York said moving forward, DSPC should be more transparent with decisions made during executive sessions, execute collection and remedy procedures to recover funds and produce an updated Economic Impact Study of the Edgemoor expansion project..
“We look forward to continuing to chart a new course with Enstructure and the current Port leadership,” Sokola and Brown said in a statement. “We are confident our steadfast commitment to this project will soon lead to shovels in the ground on a modern, state-of-the-art container ship port that will create thousands of high-paying jobs and transform our State’s economy.”
