By Liz McMahan
Wagoner Public Schools is dealing with more than just budget cuts, according to Superintendent Sonny Bates.
The schools also face the cost of a special audit and the prospect the district could be required to make restitution if fraud is found in an investigation of school lunch funds.
The district already has paid $17,000 for a special audit of its general fund records by the state Auditor and Inspector’s Office. That’s not the final bill, Hayes said.
Charges for special and routine audits of county, city and school governments make up about 60 percent of the funding for the state auditor’s office, said Trey Davis, the auditor’s director of communications. The other 40 percent comes from state appropriations.
Special audits have to be requested by the state, county or local officials or may be requested through petition, Davis said.
“We don’t have the authority to just go in and do them,” he said.
Counties budget for regular audit expense, but special audits generally are not anticipated in the budget-making process. The price of special audits depends on the length of time the auditors are at the site and in their offices reviewing the data and other information, Davis said.
Wagoner school’s audit was requested after school treasurer Mary Gaylor came under suspicion of having taken money from both the general fund and child nutrition program. She resigned from office, but no charges have been filed.
The special audit is due to be delivered in early December, Davis said.
Hayes said the findings will be turned over to the Wagoner County District Attorney’s Office once they are received.
The state Department of Education is conducting the audit of the child nutrition funds, Bates said.
Wagoner isn’t the only entity affected by the costs of special audits; Warner recently paid $23,880 for an audit of its town records, said Town Clerk Teresa Duke.
Webbers Falls is being audited at the request of District Attorney Larry Moore, who has said he plans to bring charges by the end of the month against some trustees, based on an investigation by his office. The audit now under way is looking at whether grant funds received by the town have been properly spent.
So far, the town has been billed $3,000 for that audit, which is not yet complete, said Mayor Jewell Horne.
That is quite a bit for the town because of its limited budget, she said.
In Warner, former Town Clerk/Treasurer Carla Reed faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 19 in connection with an embezzlement charge filed in October.
She was charged with taking less than $25,000 from the town. The special audit that is the basis for the charges cost the town $23,880.
Davis said it is possible for the entities to recover the cost of the special audit as a part of the defendant making restitution. That was a part of the plea agreement in the case of former Marble City school superintendent Larry Couch. Couch made $1.1 million in restitution, after having taken $1.2 million.
However, even when restitution is ordered, there is no assurance the entity will receive it. A program prepared by the auditor’s office on embezzlement includes a segment about former Muskogee County Court Clerk’s employee Jackie Borovetz.
The program states Borovetz stole nearly $600,000 and estimates the likelihood of recovering the money at zero percent.
The state has the same likelihood — zero percent — of recovering the $1.8 million Roger Q. Melson Jr. took in a check laundering scheme from the state School Land Office.
Reach Liz McMahan at 684-2926 or lmcmahan@muskogeephoenix.com.
