Columbus – Auditor of State Keith Faber today issued the fiscal year 2018 audit of Scioto County. The audit uncovers that the former Recreation Department Supervisor, Tim Knittel, failed to deposit $4,495 of fees collected for shelter reservations.

“I recommend the recreation department learn from this experience and place more robust checks and balances on their employees responsible for handling money collection and deposit,” Auditor Faber said.

In Scioto County, the recreation department has four shelters that the public can reserve for a fee. When someone requests a shelter, the recreation department schedules the reservation, issues a manual receipt to the person making payment, and keeps a duplicate copy of the receipt in a manual receipt book. The Recreation Department Supervisor then deposits the collected fees with the County Treasurer’s office and the County Auditor’s office records the deposit.

During calendar year 2016, the recreation department issued 81 manual receipts totaling $4,430. Additionally, auditors identified 76 reservations that the recreation department documented as paid in 2016, but did not have a corresponding duplicate manual receipt. The fees related to these reservations totaled $3,870. Auditors identified one payment of $55 was deposited with the County Treasurer, but there was no corresponding reservation or receipt related to the payment. In total, the recreation department collected $8,355 in reservation fees in 2016 and only deposited $6,200 to the County Treasurer. Ultimately, auditors determined the recreation department collected $2,155 in shelter reservations fees that it did not submit to the county.

These issues continued 2017; the recreation department issued 186 manual receipts totaling $9,245. Auditors found six shelter reservations that the recreation department documented as paid in 2017, but did not have a corresponding receipt, totaling $355. Auditors determined that only $7,260 of the total $9,600 of reservation fees were submitted to the county for 2017, indicating that $2,340 was not submitted to the county.

During this period, the former Recreation Department Supervisor, Tim Knittel, signed a majority of the manual receipts issued for shelter reservation fees. He was also responsible for monitoring shelter reservations and depositing the monies collected to the Treasurer’s office.

Auditor Faber has issued a finding for recovery against Knittel and in favor of Scioto County for $4,495.

On September 25, 2019, the county received a check from Knittel for $4,495. The Auditor’s office therefore considers this finding repaid under audit.

A full copy of this report is available 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 6,000 state and local government agencies. Under the direction of Auditor Keith Faber, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies, and promotes transparency in government. 

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Allie Dumski

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