Nov. 15, 2014 Tavares, FL
She had big credit card bills and found a weakness in internal software that let her cut NINETY-EIGHT (98) checks to herself without detection by other
staff over a THREE YEAR period. Click HERE to read the article.
Apparently the Jefferson County, TN finance staff did not have RECONCILIATIONS of check amounts vs
authorized payments or other standard accounting procedures to detect the problem.
As a former Corporate Internal Audit manager, one of my auditors once found an IT clerk who did the same thing, and adjusted payment names in the check database and hid the reconciliation reports. He did it to raise money for a down payment on a house.
Hopefully, no such control weaknesses exist in Lake County Government or
the School District systems that let an employee embezzle over $100,000
over a 3 year period.
The article was not clear about the exact reason why the fraud could take
place so long, and magically, County staff would not return calls to the
press.
The Jefferson County, TN Finance officer AND the CPA who audited their
financials should also be fired.
Additionally, it shows that government agency finance offices should not
hire anyone who seems into a LOT of fashion.
Vance