State Auditor Dave Vaudt has released reports on two separate organizations where over $100,000 was improperly spent by each. The first report covered the operation of the Chariton Valley Planning & Development Council of Governments in Centerville.
“We found that there was approximately $54,000 of improper disbursements, which included $18,000 of unapproved raises for the former executive director, over $13,000 of improper payments for extra time that she had worked, and also about $12,000 of excessive rents for a building that she owned,” Vaudt says.
Vaudt says they also found that the sputhern Iowa council’s former executive director, Tracy Daugherty, spent nearly $48,000 of federal funds on operations that did not qualify for the use of federal funds. He says in some cases there was a lack of documentation to justify the use of federal funds.
Vaudt says there was definitely some misunderstanding about how the federal funds were to be spent and that came to light after the U-S Department of Commerce did a review of the funds and then asked Vaudt’s office to review the financial statements.
Vaudt made recommendations to the council on how to better handle federal and other funds. He also forwarded his report to federal and state officials for possible action.
The other audit covered nearly $114,000 in mishandled funds by the Bloomfield Fire Department. The audit came at the request of the Bloomfield city council. “The council had hired a C.P.A. to come in and look at the fire department’s transactions and based upon some concerns that he noted, the Davis County Attorney requested our investigation,” Vaudt says.
“And what we found was, there was about $9,000 of improper disbursements, about a thousand dollars of cash withheld from deposits, and a little over a hundred thousand dollars of unsupported disbursements where they just didn’t have records to support the payments they were making.” Vaudt’s investigation found the department’s former Fire Chief, Robert Hougland, and former treasurer, Craig Scott, were involved in the improper disbursements.
“The former fire chief received about $1,500 of improper payments and made about a $500 car loan payment on his own personal loan. And the former treasurer received about $1,300 of improper payments and made about $4,700 worth of improper cash withdrawals,” Vaudt says.
Vaudt also reported a desktop computer was located at the fire department and turned over to the state Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) for analysis. He says the completion of that analysis could yield more information on the department’s funds.
Copies of the Bloomfield report have been filed with the Davis County Attorney’s Office, the Davis County Sheriff’s Office, the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Attorney General’s Office.
See the audit reports here: