A little more info on the Donna Jamison issues:
snip:
SALLISAW — The Sequoyah County Commission tabled a special audit request by new County Clerk Vicki Sawney on Tuesday, saying on an assistant district attorney’s advice, they’ll need a resolution on which to vote.
They’ll readdress the matter at their regular weekly meeting at 10 a.m. Jan. 26, said Commission Chairman Bruce Tabor, District 1.
Following the meeting, Sawney said there are some irregularities with the office’s records kept under former longtime County Clerk Donna Jamison.
“There are some things that need to be looked at more closely, and it will protect the integrity of the office,” Sawney said.
Sawney said she requested the special audit by the state auditors because the regular turnover audit done with a change of administration does not address those issues. Sawney said she does not yet have the results of the turnover audit done in December during the last week of Jamison’s term. A special audit must be approved by the county Board of Commissioners, Sawney said.
Issues Sawney said should to be addressed in a special audit are:
• An auditors’ request that Jamison bring back a computer monitor she’d taken home or bring a receipt for it to the office.
• Apparently missing inventory cards or a summary report.
• Four boxes of files and paperwork containing more than $100,000 in checks, made payable primarily to health insurance companies for employees, found in Jamison’s car. Jamison returned the records on request.
• Apparently missing personnel records required to be kept locked.
• Overspending on a cash account, a records preservation account. State statute requires 50 percent of the budgeted carryover remain when a new officer takes office.
Sawney said the account, which had been building up for three to four years, had a $200,000 carryover budgeted, but when Jamison left, only $36,000 remained.
Sawney said Jamison spent the money on records preservation, but she spent the bulk of it transferring records to microfilm, an outdated preservation system.
Sawney said auditors have suggested greater segregation of duties in the office, and it is Sawney’s intent to cross-train her staff.
“If one person does all the purchasing, … there are no checks and balances, … and it would look better if there are some checks and balances,” Sawney said.
Sawney said she doesn’t think there was anything criminal in the former clerk’s actions.
Sawney defeated Jamison in the July election in a 2,988-2,841 vote. The election fell a week after Jamison came under fire by the Internal Revenue Service for allegedly failing to pay thousands of dollars in withholding taxes on the county payroll.
Sawney said she checked with the IRS and found that Jamison had paid in full the $73,000 due in withholding taxes before leaving office.
Jamison could not be reached for comment before story deadline.
By Mary L. Crider
http://www.lymanadr.com/county-clerk-has-to-wait-for-special-audit/
