DAYTON — A state audit of the city of Dayton's 2005 financial records released this morning found the city's accounting system was unable to produce accurate documents in a timely manner showing how more than $32 million in federal grant money was spent.Apparently, the city (???) was relying on individual department heads to account for this cashola. Does that sound reasonable to you?
"While the city was not found to have misspent or illegally spent public funds, carelessness in the administration of financial accounting opens the city up to the potential for fraud or misspending of public funds," Steve Faulkner, deputy press secretary for the State Auditor's Office, said.
The audit also found carelessness in the city's handling of various accounts and payroll procedures.
"In order to properly account for every tax dollar collected and spent, the city must implement policies and procedures, commonly referred to as internal controls, to ensure that every tax dollar is spent legally and appropriately," State Auditor Mary Taylor said. "The failure to do so could increase the potential for fraud or theft of public funds."
Here are some other problems that the audit found:
I don't think the IRS would find it all that acceptable if my return looked this way...Several deposits lacked proper documentation that could prove the funds were placed in the proper account. The failure to transfer municipal court funds to the city on a monthly basis, causing an overstatement of more than $37,000 in the courts' accounts. Not separating water, sewer, storm water, container and disposal money into separate accounts when residents made their payments and improperly charging residents for storm water bills.
Shall I point out that Dayton has been run by Democrats since Mike Turner got out?
