Updated 10/07/2008 06:18 AM
Comptroller releases audit findings for DA's office
ALBANY, N.Y. -- “Missing money is a matter of grave concern,” said Albany County Comptroller Michael Conners.
Conners released his 33-page report on an audit of the Albany County District Attorney's office that alleges evidence bags kept in a safe which should contain money were found empty. Meaning $6,195 may have been taken or is somehow missing.
“Evidence was tampered with and money was stolen,” said Conners.
The audit also accuses the DA's office of misusing state forfeiture funds like $7,297 for mini flashlights and whistles with the DA's name on them, $12,000 for T-shirts for the "enough" program, $6,000 for neighborhood watch T-shirts, $837 for 600 bags with the DA's name
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on them and a $2,700 cash donation. The expenses total over $33,000.
“If you look at the expenditures, roughly 63 percent of them are allowable under the federal and state guidelines and 37 percent are not,” said Conners.
“Everything we do, our expenditures are viewed through Department of Justice guidelines, are allowable,” said Albany County District Attorney David Soares.
But the DA says such expenditures are valuable crime-fighting tools.
“The contents in that safe have been counted three times and three times we've gotten different determinations,” Soares said.
Soares says it's too early to say if anyone did anything wrong and said many of the financial practices have been in place long before he came to office.
“The responsible thing to do here is to have a forensic accountant, a professional review the contents of the safe,” Soares said.
Soares says he'll do that in a few weeks while wondering if this is political with the election weeks away. He won't say whether the forensic accountant would come in before or after the election should he win.
The report has a number of recommendations: creating a system of checks and balances, regularly reconciling accounts, obtaining receipts and invoices, developing a policy manual and a yearly audit by the county comptroller.
“There's a desperate need for the District Attorney to hire someone who understands accounting principles,” Conners said.
“I can assure you if money is missing and a crime has been conducted, we would conduct an investigation,” said Soares.