An audit report on the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council shows there was more than $100,000 in thefts and damage to the city in 2014, mostly from employees.
The audit, released by the Legislative Auditor’s Office, revealed Department of Public Works employees stole limestone from the city-parish department and caused more than $100,000 in damage during December. The limestone theft resulted in the largest loss of money to the city-parish out of three thefts to the city reported in 2014.
Department of Public Works employees delivered three loads of stolen limestone, which was valued at $1,200 per load, to a local business in December. The dump truck’s driver did not put down the bed of the truck when leaving the business, which led to multiple power lines and utility poles being damaged.
The Advocate reports the city-parish Finance Department was also missing $906 in sales tax payments.
City-parish Finance Director Marsha Hanlon said the missing money stems from two incidents. She said they believe one was a $500 miscount back to a customer.
Hanlon said they found in a second incident that they were missing $406, but that the police could not find enough evidence of there being a crime.
“We know money went missing and I can’t say whether someone took it or not,” Hanlon said.
The audit reports that the Finance Department’s internal controls allowed them to catch the missing money quickly. The Finance Department also has added cameras at the cashier section of its revenue department and rewritten the software that cashiers use for transactions.
Topics Fraud
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