DeKalb County Commissioners, in an effort to restore public trust, unanimously agreed Tuesday to hire an outside auditor to examine the past decade of their spending.
Commissioner Kathie Gannon pushed the move, citing the recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation that revealed Commissioner Elaine Boyer had racked up thousands of dollars in personal charges on her county-issued charge card. All seven commissioners and their staff have access to the Visa cards but have said it’s unclear what policies governed their use.
“There are procedures and policies, and there is right and wrong and common sense,” Gannon said. “You can’t legislate morality. We have to think about how we are spending the taxpayers’ money.”
The resolution calls for Chief Operating Officer Zachary Williams to hire a certified internal auditor or certified government audit professional for the work, keeping the commission out of the search process.
That person or firm would scrutinize spending on the charge cards known as P-cards, travel expenses, services and goods. All would need to be reviewed for proof the spending was for county business.
Once hired, the auditor will examine Gannon’s district first, then through each other commissioner’s individual budget. Each commissioner receives about $200,000 a year to run the office and pay for supplies, staff and insurance.
The board's decision comes a day after interim CEO Lee May issued an executive order requiring all elected officials to meet the same standards on P-cards as other county workers.
May also unveiled a new policy that allows the CEO to suspend or revoke the cards for misuse. He said Monday he had shut off the P-cards for Boyer and her chief of staff after the pair voluntarily stopped using them.
The AJC investigation found that Boyer spent more than $16,800 on airline tickets, rental cars, cellphone charges and other travel expenses on her county-issued card. She reimbursed the county for many of the charges within months, but paid back, or pledged to pay back, about $8,000 of that total only after the newspaper began asking questions.
Boyer asked Williams for an audit of the P-cards assigned to commissioners and all other elected officials last Thursday, before May announced his new policy.
Tuesday, she approved the external audit, but said she had also asked Williams for the county finance department’s auditors to examine her spending.
“I would love to have internal audit go through it,” Boyer said, adding she expects in-house auditing to begin next week. “I welcome any audit of my district budget.”
Williams said he will begin researching for the outside auditor immediately, but there is no timeline for the audits to begin or be completed.
The resolution calls for the finished reports to be submitted to the CEO and board, as well as the county’s ethics board, for review.
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