New Audit Stirs Old Angers

Before the County Commissioners considered the issue of the budget last night, the controversy about the MGT audit which identified so many financial problems was re-opened with a review by the County Attorney Lloyd Smith of a new audit that has recently been completed.

This new audit was performed by an independent auditor, Ms. Walker, at the request of the Bertie County Board of Education. The County Commissioners were only recently provided a copy of the audit (on June 6 according to comments made last night) and the County Attorney was requested to review the new audit document because of the seriousness of the issues addressed.

The review of the audit raised numerous questions that need to be investigated. Despite the comment by Superintendent Nettie Collins-Hart that the audit did not show "fraud" in her opinion, numerous facts in the audit can easily lead others to a different opinion. That is after all an issue of criminal activity, not an issue of educational activity, and really should be addressed by those in the county who deal with criminal matters to determine the proper course.

County Attorney Lloyd Smith Explains Audit Document

After identification of numerous instances of outrageous financial expenditures documented in the new audit that were similar to the concerns raised before; such as expenditures for alcohol, meals that could not be a part of school business, personal entertainment, having personnel services performed by school personnel, outrageous long distance and a litany of other concerns, the County Commissioners took their vote. They unanimously authorized the County Attorney to work with the Sherriff and have a letter sent to the appropriate SBI Investigator, with a copy to District Attorney Velerie Mitchel-Asbel. The letter is to request that these matters be persued.

During my recent campaign for the Board of Education one of the most frequent questions I got was about the irregularities that surfaced in the earlier audit and whether "anyone will ever be charged" for these matters. There was a strong belief by many that the known problems would simply be swept under the rug and no one would be held accountable for the transgressions that occured. This caused some of the anger to spill over towards local government. People felt like no one was going to be held accountable for the abuses of position and power by some in the educational arena. Any citizen concerns that our local government would not seek justice should now be eased. Our local government leaders have excercised great patience and waited until all evidence was available before voting last night to have law enforcement, the SBI, and the District Attorney look into bringing any wrong doers to justice.

Those people in Bertie County who have been concerned with financial irregularities can at least have some hope that these concerns will finally be addressed by the proper authorities. We need to follow this investigation closely.