The Arizona Comptroller General conducts an annual review of the county’s financial accounts and reports potential problems. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, county Internal control and compliance reporting A plan of action was developed for remediation by three observation staff.

Among those findings, the Comptroller General reported that fraudulent accounts stole $42,739 from the county because procurement failed to obtain tax forms to change account login credentials for online money transfer services. Did.

An employee at a construction company contracted by the county sent wrong bank routing information to procurement staff, who were unable to confirm the change by phone, said county administrator Jan Lescher.

According to the report, within two weeks of the first transfer, the county authorized two transfers of $1.5 million and $2.5 million to the account, but the fraudulent account’s bank detected fraud and denied the transfer. canceled.

The funds were stolen because the procurement department “failed to train employees on the verification procedures required to obtain an IRS W-9,” according to the audit, confirming the transfers were genuine. Mr. Lesher said the county received the proper tax returns but did not confirm that banking information had been changed at the company.

The Controller General will provide the County with staff training on the verification process, require more forms of verification when resetting logins, and create a monitoring system within the self-service portal for vendors working with the County. recommended.

Deputy Inspector Melanie Chesney said the nature of the state-issued audit is to find “any money that could have been in danger of being stolen.” However, a Pima County audit uncovered “an unfortunate instance of actual theft of money.”

“If public money is stolen because a public official is not doing what they are supposed to do, that is cause for concern and, of course, our auditing standards require that we report it in a public report,” she said. Told.

Mr Lesher said:

The report also outlines issues with previously reported news that former county administrator Chuck Huckleberry tendered his resignation in July 2021, which was not known to county residents and the Board of Supervisors. not yet, but returned to work to receive $12,228 in monthly pension benefits, plus his normal salary. 114,110 in total from April 15 to the last payroll issued on April 15.

The audit found that the covert action left the board without “an opportunity to assess its operational impact on the county and the direction it wanted to take in the light of the county administrator’s imminent retirement,” and also that supervisors had Huckleberry. He said he was unaware of doing so. In case of reinstatement, the employee must work less than 20 hours a week for six months.

After learning of Huckleberry’s retirement, the board said in May that employees planning to retire within the state’s retirement plan and continue working in the county must notify the board at least 90 days in advance of their retirement date. We adopted a policy that we must.

A third audit found that the county did not adequately monitor re-recipients of federal funds. Lesser said the sub-beneficiary was the City of Tucson, where he received $1.6 million in funding for the county’s Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program, which provides assistance to asylum seekers.

The county issued a reimbursement request to the city, but failed to closely monitor Tucson’s spending of the federal budget required for federal rulings, according to the report.

Lesher said the problem arose when Tucson went from being a contractor to being a sub-recipient, requiring closer scrutiny. The city said he was deemed a sub-recipient in June 2022, but the deal outlining the new relationship he had commenced on July 1, 2022.

“If you have sub-recipients, you need to monitor them, because they offer programmatic services as part of the contract, you need to monitor them,” said Lesher. “I am very pleased and confident that the city has complied with the requirements during his one month of service.”

The county contracts with a third-party agency to monitor sub-recipient spending, according to the report.

“We are responsible for a lot of the public’s money and we are trying to ensure that it is spent without fraud. All issues brought to our attention by the Comptroller General have been addressed.” said Lesser. “I don’t have a sense of concern that this kind of problem will continue.”