Clayton County’s government operated under a “lack of policies, procedures and controls,” according to preliminary findings of a forensic audit.
The long-awaited audit, which cost $500,000, was ordered 13 months ago by the incoming county commission chairman, Jeff Turner, and commissioner Shana Rooks to give them an idea of what, if any, problems they would be facing. The audit looked at the inner workings of Clayton County’s government from 2009 to 2012. The final report is expected to be submitted to county officials within a month. But Tuesday night, county commissioners got a glimpse of the results.
The audit focused on contracts and accounts payable, special purpose local option sales tax or SPLOST, and the county’s fire fund, said Aaron Danzig, an attorney with Arnall Golden Gregory, a law firm hired to do the audit along with auditing firm White Elm. Dozens of employees were interviewed and the audit examined 10,000 pages of public documents, Danzig said.
There was no central monitoring for contracts, Danzig said in his report to the county commission. The former finance director had an “autocratic management” style and “exercised sole control of the department,” Danzig alleged in his report to the commission. Miscommunication led to misunderstandings about the fire fund, Danzig said.
Although he said he’s still waiting on the final report, Turner said he was alarmed by the preliminary findings.
“Clearly it demonstrates a lack of control in the finance department, lack of transparency and antiquated systems,” he said.
The former county manager and former finance director “refused to speak to us,” Danzig said, as did the county’s former auditor, KPMG.
“From what I understand, there was no allegations of any wrongdoing. The Clayton County finance department has been recognized for 34 consecutive years for excellence in financial reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association,” said Wade Starr, who served as county manager from the fall of 2011 until January 2013. “The state requires an independent audit be done and submitted each year. That audit addresses policies, procedures and internal controls. Anyone who chooses to read that can see that we had strong policies, procedures and internal controls in place. I would leave it up to citizens to decide what motive these people would have to say something to the contrary.”
The audit calls for better “tracking mechanisms” and a better controlled environment that includes more written policies.
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