Hernando Public Works Director Says Department Lacked Spending Controls
HERNANDO - At the Aug. 5 meeting, held to discuss the utility fund budget, aldermen were told that the department had previously turned up few internal controls. "We discovered that there's not not a lot of checks and balances over there and the actual exposure was relatively high in that department, right?" one official said. Expenditures in the department had not, apparently, previously been tied to specific projects.
The board was informed that there is now in place a new spending policy for the department that requires supervisor-level approval for purchases and a work order tied to every expenditure. The board took no formal action on the disclosure at the meeting.
The remarks amounted to a description, from inside the department itself, of spending that for a period of time was not tracked to particular projects and lacked the kind of internal review now being put in place. The new director's account did not specify how long the gap in oversight had existed, and meeting records do not indicate whether any prior audit had flagged the utility department's spending controls. Aldermen did not press for further detail on the scope of the exposure Stephen described, and no dollar figures were cited at the meeting.