Meigs County Again Cited By Tennessee Comptroller
Some of the top jobs in the county changed with the last election.
And officials say those problems are now being corrected.
Meigs county is a small county—13-thousand residents in a mostly agricultural area.
But has felt the wrath of the Tennessee Controller’s office for several years and was seemingly unable to get to the bottom of the problems.
JOHN DUNN, SPOKESMAN, TENNESSEE COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE "The audit revealed 19 findings. What’s significant to us is that 11 of those findings were also reported last year. Our message to Meigs county is there are problems in your county government and its time to get them fixed."
The complete report specifically lists issues with budgeting, purchasing, payroll, record keeping and problems with fuel purchases.
They are all functions of the county’s financial office.
Former high school coach Bill James has been in the Mayor’s office for only 4 months.
MAYOR BILL JAMES, MEIGS COUNTY "What happened…in this particular case, revenue expenditure monthly reports have not been submitted to our county commission for several years. And without these being done every month…the county commissioners don’t know how they stand."
There have been several changes in the finance office, after Connie Allen’s role as interim finance director was eliminated more than a year ago.
BILL JAMES "We’re trying to address these problems and we’ve got new county commissioners that are very much concerned about bringing these to a solution and getting these problems completed."
The comptroller’s office says it’s up to local leaders to fix the problems.
JOHN DUNN "Punitive measures are not really a part of this process. Our job is to report the findings..to uncover the issues..and it’s the county’s job to make the corrections that are necessary."
MAYOR JAMES "Our first step is to find a new finance director."
That search is now underway.
Two years ago the Comptroller’s Office found that Finance Department employees were paid more than 26-thousand dollars in unauthorized compensation.
Interim director Allen received 24-thousand dollars in addition to her regular salary.
There was apparently no documentation to justify the additional payments.
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