A recent series of investigations into flawed spending practices in DeKalb County were triggered by a budget overrun last year, but a review of county records shows employees knew rules were being bent — and too much was being spent — as much as a year earlier.

In 2006, an employee in the county's purchasing and contracting department was alarmed by a spending spree involving three technology companies.

"These contracts are seriously over budget," wrote Cathryn Horner, a contract administrator. A copy of her Oct. 19, 2006, e-mail was obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the Georgia Open Records Act.

Two of the three companies that concerned Horner — EMA and G4 Enterprises — figure prominently in a March audit by accounting firm KPMG. Both had contracts with the county for $50,000, yet, in a later e-mail, Horner told a manager in the county's information systems department that EMA had received $236,000 and G4's bill had climbed to $252,000.

Both companies had been paid over the $50,000 threshold set by county policy for competitive selection through a "request for proposal," or "RFP."

With the money already spent, Horner wrote of an "emergency to get the RFP done" afterward.

Horner declined to be interviewed for this article. Officials from EMA and G4 Enterprises said they only did what the county asked them to do.

"If DeKalb County has some sort of stipulation there that we're only supposed to receive $50,000 worth of work, I don't know how we control that," said David Gallemore, the chief executive officer of G4.

Perhaps budgets could have been controlled had the spending been reined in back in 2006, but the bills were allowed to pile higher. According to KPMG, as of February of this year, EMA had been paid $3.7 million while G4 had received $2.7 million — all without new county contracts or rebidding.

The information systems department overshot its 2006 budget by $2.5 million, according to a routine annual audit by KPMG. When the department appeared on track for a repeat performance in 2007, county finance officials cried foul and alerted the elected board of commissioners, who stopped paying consultants.

Last December, commissioners hired KPMG to investigate further. The forensic audit the accountants released in March documented widespread violations of procurement rules, such as multiple same-day payments to firms including EMA that were just below the $50,000 bidding threshold and the $100,000 level that requires County Commission approval.

Horner's e-mail suggests that the strategy for county bureaucrats was to spend money first, and get approval later. She wrote her information systems colleague that his department could go to the County Commission "to get more dollars for the existing contracts and then they can be increased and payments made against them."

Richard Stogner, the county's top manager, said he and other officials were merely trying to keep money flowing to ensure that necessary computer work was done. The accountants and government experts who examined the situation appeared to support Stogner's assertions.

Auditors from KPMG said they did not find any wrongdoing but noted that they were not asked to look for it. Another outside review secured at the request of Stogner's elected boss, Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones, also found no evidence of ill intent. That other investigation, by a team that included former Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Wayne Hill, said none of the employees they interviewed revealed "anything other than the well-intentioned motivation" of getting work done.

So what did staffers do wrong? County policy required officials to competitively select all vendors performing work that cost more than $50,000.

But that policy differed from the state law governing DeKalb County, which eliminates the competitive bid requirement for purchases from a vendor who holds a state or federal contract.

Stogner said most, if not all, of the overpayments cited by KPMG were technically proper because they were based on billing rates prenegotiated by the state or federal governments. He blamed ballooning costs on efforts to replace outdated mainframe computers.

"We pushed a lot of projects," he said. "We took DeKalb County out of the dark ages."

Still, some county commissioners express surprise that there was any confusion about one bright line: The law says the DeKalb commission "shall authorize all contracts" exceeding $100,000.

The controversy has sown mistrust among county officials. Commissioner Burrell Ellis said he believes Stogner and other officials intentionally bypassed the commission. "I think there was a clear intent to do what they did, which was wrong," Ellis said. "I think there was clearly an intent to circumvent the system."

The information systems department blew past its budget by $1.4 million last year. Commissioners set aside money from this year's budget to cover debts owed to consultants such as EMA. But the commission so far has refused to approve any payments.

Ellis acknowledged it is probably too late to determine whether taxpayers got the best deal.