State Auditor Mike Harmon released the audit of the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Department 2016 tax settlement Tuesday that includes three noncompliance findings.
According to the release, the first noncompliance listed is the Caldwell County Sheriff’s office lacks adequate segregation of duties, which the auditor says is a repeat finding and was included in the prior year audit report.
Sheriff Stan Hudson’s response to the finding is they have a small office, which results in limited personnel in his office.
In the last year, he states they have implemented new policies to fulfill the requests made by the auditors, to the best of their abilities. Sheriff Hudson says he feels his staff has done a fantastic job with the resources they have been allotted, and they will continue to conduct double and triple checks to ensure the accuracy of their records.
The auditor found the sheriff’s office failed to require deposits to be made intact with all payments to be made by check, which is also a repeat finding and was included in the prior year audit report in 2015. The finding says the sheriff’s bookkeeper made refunds in cash, but was not aware they could not do so. As of March 2017, the auditor says they have stopped that practice. The auditor says the deposits were shorted by the amount of the cash refund, and the refunds of the overpayments were made in cash.
Sheriff Hudson’s response to the finding is his office will no longer make change for checks written for the amount than what is due. Upon completion of the tax audit, he says his office has made many changes and request the tax payers that all checks be made in correct amount due, despite the inconvenience on the tax payers.
The Caldwell County Sheriff also failed to distribute interest monthly, which is another repeat finding and was included in the prior year audit report findings. The auditor says the sheriff failed to turn over interest payments on a monthly basis, and made three payments to the school board and three payments to the sheriff’s fee account for interest earned on tax collections.
According ot the bookkeeper, the auditor states the interest checks were written when large amounts of interest were received. Because earnings were not paid to the school district or the fee account on a monthly basis, the school and fiscal court were denied access to proceeds of interest from tax collections. Sheriff Hudson’s response is his office will include the interest on the monthly checks in the future.
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