Officials in the town of Whiteville took nearly $10,000 of money out of their drug fund and spent it on things they weren’t supposed to, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released Friday.
According to the audit, town officials paid $9,230 from the drug fund and bought office furniture and wiring for the new city hall building. By law, they may not use drug fund money on such expenditures, according to the audit.
No one at the town of Whiteville’s government offices were available to talk to The Tennessee Star Friday or to explain where, precisely, revenue from the drug fund originates.
According to the town’s drug fund manual, town officials can use this money on drug treatment and drug education programs, drug enforcement programs, confidential expenditures, law enforcement expenditures, and automated fingerprint machines.
“The police chief told the town recorder these were allowed expenditures,” auditors wrote.
Comptrollers also called out town officials for paying employees during their lunch breaks and for giving out overtime to employees who did not work more than 40 hours.
“One employee was being paid during lunch, resulting in an overpayment of approximately $81 during a week with four workdays. This would project to approximately $5,286 for a year,” the audit said.
One employee was not clocking out for lunch and was being paid through lunch even though he or she left the premises, the audit said.
Auditors also faulted town officials for, among other things, not doing an annual inventory of governmental fund capital assets. Town officials, according to the audit, also allowed several expenditures to exceed the budget. Furthermore, town officials did not obtain competitive bids for all required items, auditors wrote.
Whiteville is in Hardeman County and has a full-time police department, according to the town website.
The town had about 4,700 people, according to the most recent Census.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
[…] As reported last year, officials in the town of Whiteville allegedly paid $9,230 from the drug fund and bought […]
[…] As reported last year, officials in the town of Whiteville allegedly paid $9,230 from the drug fund and bought […]
The offenders need to be prosecuted and the money reimbursed from the city’s general funds.