A state audit has uncovered a lot city money that went missing in the town of Vinton from 2001 to 2007.
State Auditor David Vaudt says the report identifies more than $65,000 in undeposited collections from the Vinton Parks and Recreation Department. He says Kari Cantrell, an administrative assistant for the department, admitted cashing some of the checks and resigned in August of last year.
"We found that there was a little over $8,000 that was directly deposited into her personal bank accounts, so we could follow the cash going in there. (Cantrell) was responsible for all the other cash collections and they never reached the city’s deposits," Vaudt said. "More than likely, that (additional) cash was spent directly by Cantrell."
The missing money includes undeposited collections from the city’s swimming pool and the skate and activity center. Vaudt says the case should serve as a reminder to other Iowa cities about the importance of financial oversight by upper level administrators.
"There are some things that they can implement that are not real time consuming that can make a huge difference," Vaudt said. "They won’t necessarily always prevent fraud, but hopefully it will help catch fraud much earlier." Copies of the Vinton audit have been turned over to Vinton Police, the Iowa DCI, the Benton County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office
