http://www.wboc.com/Global/category.asp?C=42944&nav=menu222_1
Reported by Kevin Leahy
Salisbury City Audit Finds $10 Million Misreported
02/01/2008 6:10 PM ET
SALISBURY, Md. - After a month of delays, the city audit of Salisbury finds more than $10 Million of misreported money.
The amount is the total of two transactions of money coming into the city, from a bond worth $5.3 Million and a lease worth $4.9 Million.
Mayor Barrie Tilghman took responsibility for the oversight, saying an inexperienced financial department never balanced some city accounts properly. City Administrator John Pick explained the money was never missing, but that staff misunderstood when to balance accounts.
"They thought they were doing it correctly but they were not. They thought those adjustments were supposed to be made at the end of the year, but that's not correct. That's corrected now," said Pick, who noted the adjustments are supposed to be made each month.
Pick said the money accumulated over a period of seven months that way. He said the city is unscathed financially, because proper accounts were established to correct interest, but the proper follow-through never happened."You've got to do both step-one and step-two. We did step-one, but did not do step-two," furthered Pick, who said it's reasons like this that the city is audited in the first place.
Still, Council member Debbie Campbell says she intends to get to the bottom of the problem at the council's next meeting on Feb. 4.
Campbell said, "This is serious. This management letter is serious. And, on Monday night I expect full answers to the Council's questions. I want to set the city's finances in good order."
Despite the error, Mayor Tilghman says everyone within the financial department will keep their job.
GO HERE to read the AUDIT!
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
What a load o' horsepatoot!
ReplyDelete'Specially the part 'bout the mayor takin' responsibility. Ain't nothin' in this report shows she is. Takin' 'nother opportunity t'blame staff, looks t'me like.
--CD
(Yeah, I'm still 'round watchin'. Just ain't go as much in me fer mouthin' off. But tonight, I got t'readin' 'bout the audit stuff, and just plain foamin' at the mouth.
Hope the good citizens o'Salisbury don't let this load o' manure fly as something real.
Godspeed, ya'll.)
Gee, where can I get a job (other than with the government) where I can mismanage 10 million dollars, stick it to thousands of people (by raising taxes and other things in this case) and still keep my job. Oh, and then I might even get a raise.
ReplyDeleteBETTER LATE THAN NEVER:
ReplyDeleteGood article in the Daily Times today (Sun.).
"City Administrator John Pick explained the money was never missing, but that staff misunderstood when to balance accounts."
ReplyDeletehe said in 2007, january, reconcilation was to be done monthly.
Joe:
ReplyDeleteHow come Bill Duvall ("Duvafiles") has gone completely silent on things in the City of Salisbury?
Because he is a cronie of Paul Wilbur and he is obsessed with bashing Harris and Albero even if it means supporting another candidate that is more fiscally irresponsible.
ReplyDeleteWe know the Mayor for who she is and what she does, but is John Pick really this inept?
ReplyDeleteSounds like recall time to me!
Well, here now we find that John Pick is as inept at accounting as the Mayor and Oland. Either that or he is protecting his big salary and thinks if he spins the reasons enough he'll be on board when the current administration is canned. The statement "that the staff just didn't know to reconcile the accounts monthly" is almost criminal. Its his job to insure that the staff does their job correctly and to the letter of the rules, wouldn't you say?!
ReplyDeleteA. Goetz
John Pick is carrying Mayor Tilghman's water, and they both sound like idiots trying to defend this.
ReplyDeleteThere ought to be resignations at this point. Since there won't be, we do need to RECALL! Starting with the mayor...and let's doing Lyin' Louweasel, Babbling Bubba and Shameful Shanie to boot!
They've all conspired to defraud the public. How many times has Bubba said he talks to the administration? Well, now we know about what!
It would appear that John Pick is the management behind the management responses. If this is so then he is about as dumb as a box of rocks making remarks like he does and not knowing what he's talking about. Apparently it's easy to sit in the big chair and make shit up as you go along.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't know? WTF??? These are accountants with college degrees and supposedly experienced and they DIDN'T KNOW? Get the hell out of here, the taxpaying citizens of this city are not as stupid as you like to think they are. Why is John Pick allowing Barrie to write scripts such as this and then he relays this stupidity to the public as if we're going to buy it. Talk about dumb and dumber, sounds like you're taking lessons from Bubba and Shamie
Let me suggest to who ever is interested that you Google,the Office of the Maryland State Special Prosecutor.
ReplyDeleteWith reference to paragraph two of the Mission Statement of said Prosecutor, your up to bat Mr.States Attorney.