Current La Porte County Auditor Joie Winski took the podium on Wednesday night at the La Porte County Commissioners meeting to make a statement on the alleged embezzlement made by the former deputy auditor.
"To the citizens of La Porte County, I am sorry this is another black eye for us. However, we can and will get through this," said Winski. "The auditor's office put into action a check and balance system to assure this will not happen again. We have corrected over $5 million of misappropriated county funds."
Former deputy auditor Mary C. Ray has been accused of embezzling an excess of $150,000 funds from the La Porte County government. This accusation is rooted from evidence of her time working in the auditor's office during the entire year of 2012.
Winski started her position as county auditor on Jan. 1, 2013.
Winski said on her second day, money was missing from her office through irregularities of the money debted into the county's financial system.
"This alarmed me very much and I immediately contacted the State Board of Accounts," said Winski at the meeting. "They arrived in my office within hours of that telephone call, and they are still here."
Winski said she is thankful SBoA has been present to help her implement new procedures for receipting money.
She said she informed all department heads of the new procedures and attached a new accounting form on Jan. 8. She said the office had their vendor add another level of security to the software used for receipting. The auditor's office and treasurer's office now have to reconcile their banks on a monthly basis.
"Joie Winski's office has been working diligently in trying to get to the bottom of this and to make sure there is not a reoccurrence," said La Porte County Attorney Shaw Friedman.
Winski noticed misappropriated money as well. She said additional appropriations that were approved by the county council were not transferred correctly or not at all.
During public comment, Kyle Bailey, founder of Sellcom Communications Professionals, stood before the commissioners and asked County Councilman Rich Mrozinski to answer why he allegedly withheld information about the missing funds.
"Like many, I've followed with interest this emerging scandal about the alleged embezzlement," said Bailey. "I took the step of going online and searching through public records...and it appears that the State Board of Accounts specifically warned certain county officials three years ago in an exit conference on Oct. 27, 2009 that this business of leaving cash and checks in the auditor's office for days at a time without them being receipted in could be a huge problem and lead to missing monies."
Bailey said the exit conference had three people present - Craig Hinchman, Barb Huston and Rich Mrozinski. He said those three had the knowledge and the forewarning to avoid scandal.
"I am here tonight to publicly ask Mrozinski to show us - in the way of minutes of the council, letters, e-mails, memos or anything to stop this practice - that he was warned on Oct. 27, 2009 that this method could lead to missing money," Bailey said.
"Thank you for the education," said Commissioner Willie Milsap.
The commissioners also approved an updated list of all county officials to have official bonds through the county's insurance. Liability Insurance Agent of Record John Jones presented the update and said all of the current county officials have a bond set in place.
"Due to all types of circumstances, several bonds in the past were not recorded," said Jones.
He said as far as the former auditor and deputy auditor, they did not have a bond set through the county.
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http://heraldargus.com/articles/2013/09/20/news/local/doc523a5736da7ff817754177.txt
See earlier articles on the missing funds here:
http://indianapropertytaxreporter.blogspot.com/2013/09/herald-argus-reports-assets-of-former.html
http://indianapropertytaxreporter.blogspot.com/2013/09/times-reports-court-freezes-assets-of.html
