BACKGROUND,
AUTHORITY, SCOPE - "The basic
powers and duties of a board of county commissioners, as set forth in Section 125.01,
Florida Statutes, generally encompass a responsibility to provide for the health, safety,
and welfare of the citizens of the county. This responsibility is typically carried out
through the provision of services in such areas as: fire protection and health programs,
recreational programs and facilities, comprehensive planning for development, housing and
community development programs, road and other transportation facilities and maintenance,
zoning regulation, building codes, and utilities programs and facilities..."
FINDINGS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS - "Our audit of the BCC and the Clerk
disclosed numerous instances in which the BCC and/or the Clerk had not established the
controls necessary to assure the safeguarding of their resources and compliance with
applicable legal requirements or had not established adequate records systems to
demonstrate compliance with such requirements. These instances are described under
appropriate subheadings below, together with recommendations for corrective actions. Because
of the nature of certain transactions discussed in this report, our audit report will be
filed with the Office of the State Attorney, First Judicial Circuit, for a determination
of whether any criminal violations of law occurred in connection with these
transactions..."
FINDINGS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS (continued one) -
"Our review of
the Clerk’s bank reconciliation procedures disclosed that bank accounts of both the
BCC and the Clerk were not promptly reconciled during and subsequent to the audit period.
At the time of our review in June 1998, 21 of the BCC’s and Clerk’s bank
accounts had not been reconciled to the accounting system general ledger since
September 1997. Although the Clerk had performed a " bank statement
reconciliation," this function did not encompass a reconciliation to the general
ledger. Such reconciliations were mere recomputations of the bank statements and did not
provide the control feature of reconciling the bank’s cash balance to the recorded
accountability..."
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (continued two)
- "The BCC assumed the responsibilities for EMS billings and
collections on September 1, 1997, at which time approximately $2.9 million
in billings were outstanding. Prior to that date, these responsibilities were
handled by a collection agency. The BCC, on November 22, 1997, employed a full-time
billing clerk whose responsibility is to handle EMS billings and collections, exclusively.
At the time of our review in July 1998, BCC personnel had not made
an attempt to collect on these accounts through the mailing of past due notices and/or
referral of delinquent accounts to a collection agency, nor had they attempted to prepare
an aging of the accounts or to make a determination as to which of these accounts are
collectible..."
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (continued three)
- "Several heavy equipment items were disposed of after having
been owned for a relatively short period of time. The BCC did not, of record, document the
need for these items to be disposed of, nor did they demonstrate the economic feasibility
of such disposals given the long-term useful lives of these assets.
The BCC’s audited financial statements reported total equipment deletions of
$2,901,254 for the period October 1995 through September 1997. These deletions included
the sale of 23 heavy equipment items (including 16 dump trucks, 4 motor graders, 2 pickup
trucks, and 1 backhoe) costing a total of $1,689,405.33, by means of bid requests or
public auction. As shown in the following tabulation, these items were only held from 3
months to 1 year and 10 months before being disposed of..."
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (continued four)
- "According to information provided by the Clerk, the former
Director of MIS/Finance, during his employment, spent a significant amount of time
(approximately 19 weeks) at a location other than the Walton County Clerk’s office. The
Clerk informed us that for most of this period of time, the former Director reported that
he was in Texas due to the illness of his wife. During these
periods of absence, the former Director of MIS/Finance was paid for 198.5 hours of regular
time (in lieu of having to use earned leave) totaling $4,298.87, 315.6 hours of
compensatory time totaling $7,847.63..."
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (continued five)
- "The BCC and the Clerk incurred $488,521 and $160,793, respectively, for travel
expenses during the period October 1994 through June 1998 (total of $649,314). These
expenses, which included reimbursements to officers/employees for travel expenses incurred
and travel-related credit card charges, do not include Tourist Development Council travel
and business expenditures which are addressed in paragraphs 287 through 296..."
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (continued six) - "Our detailed examination of Commissioners’ travel
expenses (see paragraph 242) disclosed that travel vouchers submitted by Commissioners in
support of travel expenses generally were not prepared in a manner sufficient to
demonstrate an average typical month’s travel, as contemplated by Section
112.061(7)(f), Florida Statutes. In most instances, travel vouchers
were accompanied by a cover sheet indicating that they were considered by the traveler to
be a travel allowance. We also noted that most of the travel vouchers showed mileage in an
amount equal to or greater than the BCC established in-county travel limitation..."
FINDINGS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS (continued seven) - Walton
County Tourist Development Council, "Our audit disclosed $85,022.03 of TDC
expenditures during that period October 1996 through June 1998 that were not supported by
documentation that clearly demonstrated that such expenditures were reasonable and
necessary and served an authorized TDC public purpose as shown on Exhibit C. For
example, Exhibit C includes a $60,181.52 payment to a furniture company.
Of this amount, $30,186.92 was supported by an invoice indicating only that the
expenditure was for furnishings and installation but did not specify what or how
many furniture items were received, each item’s cost, and the specific nature of the
installation.
(278) Several other expenditures included on Exhibit C did
not appear to be necessary or were not documented as to how they related to the TDC’s
responsibilities under Section 125.0104, Florida Statutes. These expenditures included,
for example, $2,600 to the Sandestin Academy to allow students to travel to
Boston; $2,000 in donations to two nonprofit organizations (Freeport High School Boosters
and South Walton Turtle Watch); $1,600 for entertainment for the South Walton Snowbirds
Association; $1,416 for antiques to furnish the TDC Executive Director’s office;
$1,000 to the Walton High School Cheerleaders reportedly for the distribution of TDC
brochures in California; $554.90 for flowers and plants for various persons with
professional associations with TDC, TDC staff and council members, and the TDC Executive
Director’s wife; $390 for flowers to decorate an annual luncheon hosted by the TDC
and attended by County officials and local business people; and $64 for personalized mugs
for TDC staff and council members. While some of these expenditures may, as
indicated by the Executive Director, have been beneficial to the public or made as a
result of concern for the welfare of TDC employees and Council members, it was not
apparent that such uses of TDC resources provided a demonstrable benefit to the TDC other
than to promote a generally favorable attitude to the TDC...."
Nepotism - "A
Courts Clerk worked in the Clerk’s Courts Division under the jurisdiction of her
mother who is the Director of Courts, responsible for the Clerk’s Courts Division. Although
the Courts Clerk does not report directly to the Director of Courts, the Director’s
responsibilities, as described in her position description, included planning, directing,
and managing Courts Division activities and personnel, including conducting performance
evaluations and implementing performance plans.
A Clerk’s Circuit Court Supervisor supervised her sister and
nephew (both Courts Clerks). The nephew, effective April 1, 1998, was reassigned to a
different area of responsibility and no longer reports to the Circuit Court Supervisor.
Although the Director of Courts was responsible for conducting performance evaluations of
these employees and signing their time sheets, the Circuit Court Supervisor’s
responsibilities, as described in her position description, included assisting in the
employee performance evaluation process..."
