Auditor raps state offices on handling of cash

Thursday, Aug. 24, 2000 | 11:24 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The offices of both Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and state Controller Kathy Augustine were lax in processing cash transactions, which increased the risk the money could have been lost or stolen, legislative audits said Wednesday.

The audits did not find any missing money but said both offices need improvement in the handling of cash.

"The Office of the Attorney General did not fully comply with laws and regulations governing the handling and deposit of cash receipts, the recording of financial transactions and the control of telephone cards issued to employees," Deputy Legislative Auditor Ian Allan said.

The examination said the office processed more than $3 million in cash and checks during fiscal year 1999 while logging in only $2.3 million of that amount.

"We found 43 percent of the cash receipts logged in during that period did not meet the timely deposit requirements," Allan said.

The law requires that if there is more than $10,000 in the office, it must be deposited within one working day. And any cash deposits must be deposited by Thursday of each week.

"Depositing cash receipts timely reduces the risk that those receipts may become lost or stolen," Allan said. "The state can also increase its interest income by investing cash for longer time periods."

In one case, it took 43 days to deposit a small amount of cash, Allan said. In another case there was $100,000 that sat in the office for a week before being put in the bank.

Sen. Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora, chairman of the legislative audit committee that accepted the report, said, "Every agency is guilty of this. We need a bigger stick to enforce it."

Del Papa told the committee she was "painfully aware" of the importance of fast deposits. But she said the checks "come at us in a lot of different ways." Cash settlements go to different lawyers handling the cases.

And she said there has been a "horrendous turnover" in her six-member fiscal staff. She also said she does not have enough workers. The office has an authorized staff of 310 employees.

She said the office has "redoubled our efforts" to comply with the law.

The audit said the telephone cards issued by the state Department of Information Technology to the office could not be traced to the individuals. These cards are given deputies who travel. And when they leave the office, the cards are given to other deputies instead of being turned back to the information technology agency.

Del Papa said that process would be changed.

Legislative Auditor Gary Crews said there were no abuses found on the telephone credit cards.

The auditors said they found "poor controls over payments received" in the controller's office. Augustine took over the office in January 1999 at the mid-point in the fiscal year that was examined.

The examination said, "Of the 58 transactions we tested, 25 transactions totaling $573,000 were not recorded on a log showing the date, payer and amount received." And the controller's office was tardy in depositing money into the bank.

The audit tested 57 checks and found nine of them totaling $3.4 million were deposited one to two days late. "In addition, because the office did not document the date of receipt for 13 checks totaling $572,000, we could not determine if these payments were deposited timely."

The controller's office also did not have adequate documents to show some of its travel was related to state business.