A state audit in the town of Lone Wolf (OK) has revealed that officials allegedly stole thousands of dollars from the community.
Oklahoma State Auditor Cindy Byrd released a report earlier this week saying the investigative audit was conducted in response to a request from the Lone Wolf Town Board of Trustees.
The audit reports that the Town of Lone Wolf’s records were disorganized, incomplete, and sometimes missing. There was very little documentation available to support the financial activities of the Town.
The Town’s office manager, Margie Horton, was allowed to conduct the majority of the Town’s day-to-day business without oversight from either the town clerk/treasurer or the Board.
The audit says that Horton improperly used at least $17,524.24 in town funds to pay for health insurance for her dependents. It appears that Horton and two other town employees also improperly profited at least $2,300 from town funds paid to their personally owned business for the purchase of fireworks for the Town’s annual Independence Day Celebration.
Neither the town clerk/treasurer nor the office manager deposited money daily as required. The lack of daily deposits resulted in bank overdraft fees totaling $7,247 and created an overall lack of accountability for utility revenue.
According to the audit, utility-billing records were not properly maintained, which resulted in the inability to account for customer utility payments, including at least $2,031.70 in cash deposits that could not be traced to bank deposits. There was also $3,000 in cash withdrawn from a bank account with no supporting documentation.
Questionable expenditures totaling $23,812.97 were made over a two-and-one-half-year period. An additional $22,743.08 in unauthorized debit-card purchases were also made over a six-year period, none of which were presented to or approved by the Board.
Read the full story in the Thursday, Oct. 7 edition of the Sunrise Online Newspaper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yzkqbtqUeFxjQlxa5UNmbzxcOdzDvZPj/view?usp=sharing