Philadelphia controller takes aim at sheriff
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
Just days before retiring, Philadelphia's sheriff is feeling heat from the city controller.
City Controller Alan Butkowitz said Tuesday the sheriff's office has refused to cooperate with an audit of its custodial accounts. The accounts are used to hold proceeds from foreclosure auctions until settlement. Butkowitz said he's taking action to make sure the accounts really hold the $53 million they should.
"We are now moving aggressively to conduct a full-scale forensic audit of the sheriff's department and all 11 custodial accounts. We will use the courts if necessary to force cooperation with our office," said Butkowitz. "At no time in recent memory has a city agency so blatantly refused to cooperate and provide the controller's office with the information necessary for an audit."
The controller also found more than a dozen employees did not keep time sheets or records of vacation and sick days. The office run by Sheriff John Green said it has sent the files to the controller and is working on strengthening its sick-leave policy.
These guys seem to have a solution for employee time-tracking, making timesheets automatic might help in situations like these. http://www.clevertimesheets.com
Please explain why you failed to report that one of the auditor's referred to members of the sheriff's staff – who are black – as cotton pickers. Or why you failed to report that the auditors accused the staff members of "hiding something" – from the start of the audit.
These statements violate the international code of ethics of auditing and put the raise question as to the integrity of this audit.
In the interest of fairness, I believe some additional reporting is required.
People of Philadelphia deserve the full set of facts.