A former employee of the Montgomery County School System used his school system- issued procurement card to make more than $1,000 in personal purchases, according to a state audit released this week.
The Montgomery County Grand Jury indicted that former employee last December on one count of theft over $1,000 and one count of fraudulent use of a credit or debit card, Tennessee Comptrollers said.
The audit did not identify that former employee.
Comptrollers said they found inappropriate charges while going over county records.
A search through the Tennessee Comptrollers’ website also showed improprieties in last year’s Montgomery County audit.
“On December 22, 2017, a taxpayer visited the Trustee’s Office to verify his 2017 property taxes were correctly posted in the office’s accounting system as having been paid; however, the property taxes were not reflected as paid,” according to the 2018 audit.
“The taxpayer then presented a receipt verifying the payment had been made with cash. When questioned, the deputy clerk who issued the receipt admitted stealing the cash. The trustee then terminated the deputy’s employment and contacted the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department. After learning about the theft, the Director of Accounts and Budgets filed a Fraud Reporting Form with the Comptroller’s Office on December 28, 2017.”
State auditors and members of the county’s sheriff’s department later said the deputy clerk voided nine property tax receipts totaling $12,461 and stole the cash.
“To conceal the thefts, the deputy temporarily changed the mailing address for these property tax notices to her personal address, so any delinquent tax notices would be mailed to the deputy instead of the taxpayer,” the audit said.
“The deputy repaid $3,749 prior to December 22, 2017, leaving an outstanding cash shortage of $8,712 on that date. The voided receipts required supervisory approval, but the details giving rise to the voided transactions were not verified by the supervisor.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Montgomery Courthouse” by Jugarum. CC BY-SA 3.0.
