Tag: Tennessee Comptrollers

Cost of College Textbooks in Tennessee Nearly Equal to One Additional Semester in School, Study Finds

Chris Butler

Tennessee Comptrollers released a report Thursday that addressed what they said was the rising costs of college textbooks in the state. “Although the cost of course materials is only one component of the cost of a postsecondary education, by the time a student obtains a degree, the total spent on course materials can equal the cost of an additional semester of tuition at some four-year institutions. The report discusses initiatives among the state’s higher education institutions to make college course materials more affordable,” according to a press release that the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability emailed Thursday.

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Cookeville Fire Chiefs Double-Dipped, Stole $30,000 from Taxpayers, Audit Reveals

Chris Butler

Authorities have indicted a Cookeville fire captain as well as a current one for allegedly taking money to which they weren’t entitled. Tennessee Comptrollers released an investigative report this week identifying those two men as former Fire Captain Marvin Montgomery and current Cookeville Fire Captain Shawn Roberson. Both men worked at the Cookeville Fire Department and also instructed part-time at the Tennessee Fire and Codes Enforcement Academy in Bell Buckle, according to the Comptroller’s report.

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Tennessee Comptrollers: Memphis-Area Nonprofits Wrongfully Obtained More Than $37,000 in Taxpayer Money

Chris Butler

Tennessee Comptrollers have released two investigations revealing what they describe as fraudulent actions by two Memphis-area nonprofits.

Red Robins Academy of Learning, Inc. (RRAL), and Giving Youth a Chance (GYAC) both participated in the Summer Food Service Program in 2018. The Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) administers this federal program and provides free meals to children during summer months when school is not in session.

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Audit: Tennessee Taxpayers Lose Huge Sum After Nursing Home Inflates Expenses

Chris Butler

  Tennessee taxpayers lost more than $3 million after a corporate-run nursing facility billed the state that much money for expenses not covered under Medicaid. This, according to a new audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. That corporation, AltaCare, is based out of Alpharetta, Georgia, according to Comptrollers. “The audit found that AltaCare included $3,224,767.49 of nonallowable home office expenses on the cost reports it submitted to the State of Tennessee,” Comptrollers wrote. “Cost reports are used to calculate a nursing facility’s Medicaid reimbursement rate and should only include expenses that are reasonable, allowable, and in accordance with state and federal rules, regulations, and reimbursement principles. Auditors determined that AltaCare’s home office cost reports submitted in 2014, 2015, and 2016 each contained nonallowable amounts. These included legal expenses, unsupported expenses, late fees, penalties, expenses not related to AltaCare, and donations.” Auditors also found that certain personal expenses of AltaCare’s director, Doug Mittleider, were also included on the 2015 cost report. These included expenses for his wife’s flight from Sanborn, New York to France, church donations, a veterinarian expense, a guitar center purchase, and other unspecified personal expenses, according to Comptrollers. “Because the home office cost reports include amounts allocated to…

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Some Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Coordinators Skip Vital Training, Audit Reveals

Chris Butler

  Tennessee Emergency Management Agency officials did not make sure all coordinators completed all required training courses, according to a performance audit state Comptrollers released late last week. Specifically, TEMA officials did not make sure between 26 to 60 Emergency Services Coordinators completed training courses, as required by the agency’s Training Policies and Procedures, auditors wrote. State officials task TEMA with coordinating, preparing, responding to and offering recovery from man-made, natural, and technological hazards. According to the report, various state employees and volunteers did not complete courses pertaining to Incident Command Training, Intra-State Mutual Aid, Emergency Management Software Training, and Emergency Worker Training, among various other required courses. According to the report, TEMA management told auditors they remind ESCs about monthly training requirements and provide them with annual reports detailing their completion or incompletion of required training courses. Some of the ESCs tell TEMA “they do not attend all of the required trainings due to other requirements such as their own jobs or busy working emergencies.” Also, they “might not attend training because they are volunteers and are not reimbursed for being an ESC.” “Furthermore, based on our discussions, TEMA seems to place emphasis on its required training courses; however, TEMA…

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Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association Must Change Its Ways, Comptrollers Say

Chris Butler

  Members of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association must apply the provisions of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act to regional meetings of member schools and committee meetings, according to a report Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. According to its website, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association administers the junior and senior high school athletic program for an estimated 110,000 participants, 426 schools, an estimated 6,000 coaches, 5,000 officials, and almost 5,500 teams. The organization has a state office in Nashville, the website went on to say. But TSSAA officials said in a written response to the report that their organization is not subject to the Open Meetings Act. In their report, Comptrollers said the TSSAA provided adequate public notice of the regional meetings of member schools, including the dates and locations of the meetings. “However, TSSAA staff provided no prior notice of the Finance Committee and Sports Medicine Advisory Committee meetings on its online or print calendar. TSSAA staff provided prior notice of TMSAA Committee meetings but did not include the location of the meeting,” Comptrollers wrote. TSSAA did not publish minutes of its regional meetings of member schools that occurred in November of last year. They also did…

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Report Lists the Top 10 Tennessee Agencies That Took the Most Federal Taxpayer Money in 2018

Chris Butler

  Ten Tennessee government agencies accepted more than $13 billion in federal taxpayer money in 2018, according to a document Tennessee Comptrollers released last week. The report examined how state agencies handled the money that Washington, D.C. bureaucrats bestowed upon Tennessee. Some of those state agencies plan to take less federal money in the future — but some plan to take even more. As The Tennessee Star reported, the Tennessee Department of Health Care Finance and Administration took in more federal taxpayer money than any other state agency in 2018, a sum of $7.2 billion. The Tennessee Department of Human Services ranked second, taking in more than $2 billion of federal taxpayer money. Human Services spokesman Sky Arnold said in an emailed statement the agency took in slightly more federal taxpayer money the year prior. That amount was $2.1 billion. “Federal Assistance is largely dependent on the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program caseload, which is currently declining. For this reason, the Department of Human Services is likely to have an overall decrease in federal assistance for the foreseeable future,” Arnold said. “It’s important to recognize the real impact Tennessee’s improving economy is having on our programs like SNAP.  Nearly 914 thousand individuals were receiving benefits…

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Report: Tennessee Health Care Department Takes Bigger Chunk of Federal Taxpayer Money Than Other Agencies

Chris Butler

  The Tennessee Department of Health Care Finance and Administration took in more federal taxpayer money than any other state agency in 2018, a sum of $7.2 billion, according to a report Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. In 2017 that same department took in less federal taxpayer money, a sum of nearly $6.9 billion, said spokeswoman Sarah Tanksley. But the amount of federal money the same department takes in will likely decrease next year, Tanksley went on to say in an emailed statement to The Tennessee Star. “Under current federal law, Medicaid is financed on a matching basis. The rate at which the federal government will match state dollars is based on the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage. In TN the ratio is approximately 65 percent federal dollars and 35 percent state dollars,” Tanksley wrote. “As mentioned in several budget hearings during the most recent legislative session, in FY2020 we anticipate that federal match rate will decrease by approximately 0.48 percent, which will result in a decrease in federal funding of approximately $42.1 million.  Our federal match rate is declining because of a federal formula based on state’s average per capita income. Tennessee’s per capita income has increased relative to other states…

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Audit: Former Gibson Police Chief Disobeyed Tennessee Law on Seized Vehicles

Chris Butler

Gibson’s former police chief did not follow state law when it came to seized vehicles, and he may not have worked the hours he said he worked, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released Friday. The former chief, unnamed in the audit, did not make sure members of his department followed state law as they seized other people’s vehicles, auditors wrote. They failed to obtain a forfeiture warrant and failed to list the legal and factual basis that made the vehicle subject to forfeiture, signed by a judge. They also failed to file seizure forms with the Department of Safety and Homeland Security and negotiate and enter settlement agreements for the return of the vehicles to the owners, according to the audit. Failure to follow state law, auditors went on to say, could expose the town to various fines and fees. Auditors also scolded town officials for failing to property return, dispose of, or monitor storage costs of certain impounded vehicles at a private storage lot, which “incurred a substantial bill for storage fees.” Auditors also said the former police chief may not have worked the hours he reported on his time cards. “His signed time cards indicated he was…

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Audit: Fentress County Commissioner Profited Illegally from County Deal

Chris Butler

A former Fentress County Commissioner made more than $13,000 by overseeing a court-ordered sale of property, and he did so while serving in office, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. Doing so violated state law, specifically the County Financial Management System of 1981 conflict of interest statute, auditors wrote. The law says county officials may not have a financial or personal interest in the purchase of supplies, materials, equipment, or contractual services for the county. County officials contracted former commissioner Jeff Green to do the work, according to the audit. Green’s proceeds included an 8 percent commission ($8,960) on the sale of the real property, a 10 percent commission ($197) on the sale of the personal property, and a reimbursement for auction expenses ($3,887). An unnamed county official concurred with the finding in a written response to Comptrollers. “Mr. Jeff Green of Green Acres Real Estate and Auction Company had previously been court-ordered to assist me in selling property. Due to this fact, and in trying to be fair to the local auction companies which I am ordered to select auction companies to assist me, I chose Green Acres Real Estate and Auction Company,” the county official…

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Henderson County Taxpayers Lost Money on New Patrol Cars, Tennessee Audit Says

Chris Butler

Henderson County officials didn’t seek out competitive bids for four patrol cars that cost nearly $100,000, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. Because of this, taxpayers lost out, Comptrollers said in the audit. “As a result, the best and lowest price may not have been obtained for the purchase of the patrol cars,” auditors wrote. Comptrollers said they selected a sample of 82 disbursements totaling $1,012,188 from a population of 7,662 vendor checks totaling $16,909,467. “Our examination revealed that competitive bids were not solicited for four patrol cars that cost $98,548. Purchasing procedures for the county are governed by the County Financial Management System of 1981, which requires competitive bids to be solicited through newspaper advertisement on all purchases exceeding $25,000. This deficiency is the result of a lack of management oversight.” The county’s finance director, not identified by name in the audit, responded to Comptrollers. “For several years, the county has budgeted funds for the purchase of patrol cars. In recent years, the purchase price for each patrol car has remained slightly below the required bid guidelines,” the finance director wrote. “Considering this, management did not solicit bids, which is in-line with purchases under $25,000 per…

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Audit: Greene County Employees Used Taxpayer-Funded Assets for Personal Reasons

Chris Butler

Greene County employees used taxpayer-funded county assets for personal reasons, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released Tuesday. State auditors responded to allegations that county Sanitation Department employees used county vehicles for private purposes and used the department’s garage to work on their personal vehicles. That, auditors wrote, prompted the county attorney and the county’s human resources director to do an internal investigation. “From the summary of the internal investigation and the written reprimands given to the employees, it appears some employees did in fact utilize a county vehicle for private purposes or the benefit of another individual and did use the department’s garage to perform work on or have work performed on their personal vehicles,” auditors wrote. “Two employees were issued written reprimands, which included three-day unpaid suspensions. We reviewed Sanitation Department invoices and were unable to determine if any department purchased auto parts were used on personal vehicles. Sound business practices dictate that county-owned property be used only for county purposes. We did note that the county, upon completion of its investigation, revised several departmental polices.” County Mayor Kevin Morrison, in a written response to Comptrollers, said he has “worked closely with the Director of Solid Waste to…

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Montgomery County Has Documented History of Theft Among County Employees

Chris Butler

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…

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Audit: Claiborne County Officials Sold Scrap Metal Illegally

Chris Butler

Claiborne County sheriff’s officers and county inmates sold scrap metal to a private vendor for personal gain while on litter patrol and got more than $20,000 for it, according to an audit Comptrollers released Friday. That’s against Tennessee law. Investigators reviewed records from July 1, 2016 through June 30 of last year, the audit said. “Sheriff’s litter patrol officers and inmates told investigators it was a long-established practice for the litter patrol to gather scrap metal from county convenience centers, road rights-of-way, and residents’ property, and sell the scrap metal to buy inmates on litter patrol lunches, snacks, drinks, and tobacco products,” auditors wrote. “We could not locate and interview all prior inmates who worked on litter patrol about this practice; therefore, we could not verify the exact amount of cash that was received and how it was always used. The scrap metal vendor kept records of most litter patrol transactions, listing the names of the inmates and sheriff’s litter patrol officers that received cash from the sales.” Comptrollers said they determined cash transactions often occurred several times a week and ranged in amounts from $2.10 to $385.70. “According to inmates and sheriff’s officers interviewed, usually one inmate would collect…

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Tennessee Comptrollers Blast Decatur County for Mismanaging Taxpayer Money

Chris Butler

The Decatur County government has just received less than admirable state audit findings. With 11 findings as opposed to the previous year’s eight, that’s putting it mildly. In a press release, for instance, Comptrollers say this year’s results “leave much room for improvement.” “The audit findings reveal many problems including expenditures exceeding appropriations authorized by the County Commission, failure to reconcile accounts, and poor record keeping. Findings were written for the offices of County Mayor (pictured above), Road Supervisor, Director of Schools, and Assessor of Property,” Comptrollers said in the emailed press release. “Auditors also had to make material adjustments to the county’s financial statements to ensure accuracy. This is a strong indicator that the county has ineffective controls over the maintenance of its accounting records.” The audit also includes an adverse opinion on the county’s component units. That is because the financial statements do not include the Decatur County General Hospital. These financial statements were not available from other auditors at the date of Comptroller’s report. Decatur County is in west Tennessee. Among only a few of the audit’s findings: • Expenditures exceeded total appropriations approved by the County Commission in the General and Special Purpose funds by $516,433 and…

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Tennessee Gas Tax Revenue Pays for Work on Private Property

Chris Butler
road construction

Members of the Grundy County Highway Department used some of the Tennessee gas tax revenue to work on other people’s private properties, and that’s against state law, according to a state audit released Thursday. One of those properties was a farm where the highway superintendent kept cattle — even though he didn’t own the land. This work, which included bulldozing stumps, among other things, went on for nine years, Comptrollers said. “The highway superintendent did not lease the farm nor did the owner charge him rent on the farm for the period he has used it,” according to the audit. “The highway superintendent stated that he began using the farm when he purchased the individual’s cattle.” Highway Department employees also bulldozed a wooded area at another farm. The owner of that property, Comptrollers went on to say, was acquainted with the highway superintendent. Comptrollers said they didn’t know if the property owner paid the highway superintendent for the work. Grundy County Mayor Michael Brady told The Tennessee Star he only learned of the findings Thursday morning. “It’s a mayor’s job to be a good steward and be compliant with Grundy County’s assets and funds,” Brady said. “I’m sure the county…

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