Columbus – Sloppy record-keeping at the Village of Woodlawn (Hamilton County) led to more than $15,000 in findings for recovery and a lengthy list of citations in an audit released today by Auditor of State Dave Yost.

“Book-keeping like this can lead to fraud, waste and abuse,” Auditor Yost said.  “The Village of Woodlawn needs to get its fiscal house in order.”

The Woodlawn Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) owns a piece of property in the village, making it responsible for the real estate tax bill.  The audit found that the Village of Woodlawn paid the tax bill for this property from 2009 to 2012, which totaled $15,733.37.  After notification from the Auditor of State’s office, the CIC repaid the village on August 3, 2012.

The village also had expenditures that exceeded set appropriations in four funds.  The failure to properly appropriate funds could result in excessive spending, which could lead to deficit fund balances.

Several village transactions lacked management oversight.  For example, in 2011, the prior fiscal officer failed to post the August 20 payroll totaling $91,326 to the ledger until December 31, 2011.  There also were a number of transactions that were posted in the wrong funds.

The village failed to keep proper records in some instances.  Audit testing found several transactions that did not have corresponding receipts.  No bonds for public officials or employees were provided to auditors.  However, expenditures related to the bonding of officials and employees were noted.

A full copy of the audit may be found online.

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio, is responsible for auditing more than 5,700 state and local government agencies.  Under the direction of Auditor Dave Yost, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies and promotes transparency in government.

Contact:
Carrie Bartunek
Press Secretary
614-644-1111