State Auditor Mike Harmon released the 2017 financial statement of Todd County Sheriff Tracy White Tuesday that includes two noncompliances found during the audit.
According to a release, Harmon reports the Todd County Sheriff’s Office lacks adequate segregation of duties over the account processes for his fee account. Per the sheriff, the lack of segregation of duties exists over the processes at his office because a limited number of employees are available to properly segregate these job duties.
State auditors recommended Sheriff White segregate the duties in order to adequately protect the employees in the normal course of performing their duties and to help prevent misappropriation of assets and inaccurate financial reporting. In Sheriff White’s response to the audit, he stated compensating controls are in place to assist with this issue.
The audit also found the sheriff’s ledgers and quarterly reports were inaccurate and did not reconcile properly, an issue reported in the prior year audit report. The release says the sheriff’s receipts and disbursements ledgers did not agree to his fourth quarterly report. The audit also found various other issues with the ledgers including items classified in the wrong account and negative items included on the receipts and disbursements ledgers. There were also overstatements on the fourth quarter report on both the receipts and disbursements line items due to items being accidentally included twice. Per the sheriff, this was caused by a lack of training for the accounting software for officer personnel.
Sheriff White’s response to the audit is since Quick Books was being utilized this did not allow this process to be completed, and now Excel is being used to address this issue.
The sheriff’s responsibilities include collecting property taxes, providing law enforcement and performing services for the county fiscal court and courts of justice. The sheriff’s office is funded through statutory commission and fees collected in conjunction with these duties.