Shelby Co. (ECWd) –
It appears that the Shelby County Dive Team Forensic Audit drafts have been provided to the county, however, at the time of publication we have been unable to get an actual confirmation response from either the current or past board chairman.
To date, the county has not placed the audit report on the agenda for any meetings and Chairman Mayhall has not responded to our inquiry about when it will be placed on the agenda.
Some very interesting findings are contained within these alleged drafts. While we hope we are wrong, we suspect the establishment will attempt to justify some of these troubling findings rather than recognize there are some real issues which need to be corrected.
Some things that jumped out at us that many will pounce on include the information from a report by the former State’s Attorney. While many of the items mentioned have nothing to do with the dive team, we believe they were included because they were part of a report given to the prior County Board Chairman Bobby Orman and included both dive team-related information and other county business. The auditor was apparently provided that report. Within that report were concerns regarding financial reporting obligations an auditor can’t just ignore. Rather than only providing those select items from the report it appears all the points from the report were provided.
Audit points of interest, although not all-inclusive:
- Benford Brown and Associates, LLC also reviewed a document titled “Summons in a Civil Matter” regarding the 2011 federal court case. The plaintiff on the document is listed as Shelby County Dive Rescue Team, a division of Shelby County, Illinois. – We wrote about these very documents in November of 2 023 in this article.
- Multiple years of spending beyond the budgeted limit.
- County Government is tax-exempt, however $481.71 was spent on taxes related to purchases.
- BB&A received no documentation for donations or earnings for the years 2021 and 2024
- BB&A asked for a list of the current Dive Team members as a part of our agreed-upon procedures. BB&A did not receive the requested information and that was one of the primary reasons for the delay in issuance of this report. (Both Chairman Mayhall and Dive Commander Austin Prichard have refused to provide the roster)
- Results from our application of agreed-upon procedures for September 1, 2021 through August 31, 2024 indicate that the accounting processes for the Shelby County Dive Team are not operating in compliance with the County’s policies and procedures.
Why would the auditor need a roster? Look no further than two of the notations in the table report included in one of the reports.
- BB&A inquired as to Nicholas Quick’s relation to the dive team. BB&A did not receive a response.
- BB&A noted the name Matthew was listed on the documentation. BB&A inquired as to Matthew’s relation to the dive team. BB&A did not receive a response.
The agreed-upon procedures identified the following:
- Failure to Inventory Equipment: Equipment purchased with County funds has not been put into inventory nor has the inventory been observed and audited.
- Potential Commingling of Funds: There is a potential for commingling of personal and County funds, particularly related to the trade-in of a truck for a County truck.
- Overspending and Credit Management Issues: Continued allowance for spending, opening lines of credit without oversight, and movement of County funds between institutions without proper control.
- Excessive Credit Cards: An excessive number of open and active credit cards, with potential misuse for personal expenses.
- Cross Utilization of Funds: The Dive Team is allowed to use fire and rescue funds, with no access to the records from the fire and rescue funds.
- Inconsistencies: Multiple issues with reporting, including active 911 subscriptions, discrepancies in training expense documentation, budget amount mismatches, and inconsistencies between reported and actual expenditures.
Again, we have been unable to confirm the two audit drafts are what was provided to the county as for some strange reason no one wants to talk about these reports. Could it be because Dive Team Commander Austin Prichard is also a member of the County Board’s Audit Committee?
We would hope that the board places these drafts on the agenda and the information contained in the audits is discussed so the public is made aware of the full story.
A copy of the two drafts can be downloaded at the links here and here, or viewed below.
Agreed-Upon Procedures Report 2024 – Shelby County Dive Team – Draft 2.pdf-2024-12-13 14.26.36Agreed-Upon Procedures Report 2024 – Shelby County Dive Team – Draft.pdf-2024-12-13 14.26.36
10 Comments
Liberty
Posted at 12:38h, 09 JanuaryOk, so I missed this comment on the facebook page. This is a draft correct that hasn’t been talked about yet on the board meetings? So if that’s the case how did you all get it? It’s not a FOIA worthy until after it has been discussed in committee or meeting.
John Kraft & Kirk Allen
Posted at 07:26h, 10 JanuaryIt doesn’t matter how we got it. It is not a top-secret national security document. While it “may” be withheld under FOIA for being in draft form, it is not “required” to be withheld under FOIA.
Justice Seeker
Posted at 17:00h, 07 JanuaryLiberty, I assumed you were using a code name. I meant no disrespect to the name. I have followed the fiasco is Shelby county for some time. It appears by the years of reporting by ECWD that the treasure has attempted to do her job but has been shut down by the board.
Kinda like the current board is trying to do with this audit. There has been very little change.
Justice Seeker
Posted at 07:21h, 07 JanuaryLiberty, I am curious why you think the treasurer is responsible to notify any one of overspending? It is the county boards responsibility to oversee budgets and see that those budgets stay within the budgeted amounts. It is rather amusing that some want to blame the treasurer for everything. Is the treasurer a scape goat for elected officials in Shelby county who refuse to fulfill their responsibilities.
It is rather amusing that some will complain that some information in the audit should not be there. That information should rile up any honest, hard working taxpayer who is being cheated by the system. When favorable assessments are handed out, other taxpayers. Sorry that load.
Not right! Ridiculous taxes due to poor government is slavery. A government that plays favorites or special treatment is not free. Are you sure you are for Liberty?
Liberty
Posted at 13:09h, 07 JanuaryI’m sorry I thought they worked in connection with the board to make sure monies were being watched and spent. Included the bit below. They should have a pulse on what’s being spent as well as the board.
“Managing the Books
The county treasurer’s office is responsible for the bookkeeping and accounting that records, tracks and updates the county’s financial situation. Like any other business entity, a county treasurer’s office prepares and use financial reports such as a general ledger, balance sheet, income statement, accounts receivables and payables reports, and cash flow statements.
Rile up any tax paying person. It would most defiantly rile up this tax payer if I spent money for one entity audit such as the dive team, and work was included from other entities that have no bearing on the audit. One would question the accuracy of such a audit at that point.
And PS. My papa named me. So taking shots at my name has no use here. I usually go by Libby…….
Kirk Allen & John Kraft
Posted at 13:12h, 07 JanuaryYou dont understand an auditors duty. The other information in the audit was not part of the aduit they did but rather reporting of what was included in the information given to them.
Liberty
Posted at 10:04h, 08 JanuaryThe information came from where or who then? Was the information not split apart for Dive, then county audit. They would of had to understand when doing the audit that land issues wouldn’t be a dive issue. Or at least questioned the information that didn’t pertain to the actual name on the front of the audit. If they didn’t question it, then how comprehensive of a job could they have done other than copy and paste.
Harold
Posted at 23:28h, 04 JanuaryWill the final draft be cleaned up from the auditor and remove the findings from this report that concerns the Dive Team that are not related to it?Those should be a separate report that are associated to those areas. That should have been caught in the draft process.
In regard’s to the meat of the matter….
1) does this County have any inventory control in pace? If not then shame on them. You alway affix property tags and record those assets. Inventory control should be conducted at least annually in the least. Who is the property control officer for the county? There are very affordable solutions on the market to address inventory management. Invest in it now!
2) Financials…where are the County accounting procedures if they exist?
3) Polcies…procedures…does anyone understand the importance of them? May want to spend some money on consultants whom specialize in policy and procedure writing. Then once in place check everything the county does on a daily basis against them.
4) I have no words concerning the fund’s management or lack thereof based on the findings. This information is confounding if it is accurate.
5) The statement the IT Department needs access to certain things. Do we mean the contracted IT company or an actual It Department on the payroll for the County? Context matters.
Liberty
Posted at 10:26h, 06 JanuaryI’m curious to see if there was any communication from the Treasure of the overspending before this audit, emails and such? Those numbers don’t match up to what the budget and the fundraising funds together. There isn’t a beginning balance as there may of been plenty of funds but they audit team didn’t take those into account? Was there money taken from fire departments for anything or equipment? That statement makes no sense. This audit is very haphazard to say the least with the added in statements not regarding the dive team. Any good audit team would of cleaned that up before they sent it out.
Justice Seeker
Posted at 12:28h, 04 JanuaryAny person reading the audit draft who is ruled by their brain rather than emotion could come to a couple of conclusions. One, Shelby county has an issue with documentation of expenses and tracking assets. Second, it is obvious there is a coverup in process but the Shelby County United group of elected officials who ran on the platform of supporting the Dive Team. One can say they stuck to their campaign promises. They will support them even if laws are broken. Sad, sad state of affairs in Shelby county!