State Auditor Crit Luallen Releases Updated Audit of See the audit report for Full Details |
Crit Luallen |
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(Frankfort - July 29, 2005)
State Auditor Crit Luallen today released the audit of the 2005 financial statement of Fulton County Clerk, Lesia LaRue. State law requires the Auditor to conduct annual audits of county clerks. The 2004 audit led to a referral to the Attorney General's Office and Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Langford. An indictment was returned yesterday in Fulton Circuit Court. A new audit was completed for the Clerk's Office, covering the time period between January 1, 2005 and Clerk Larue's resignation on June 7.
The Attorney General's Office has been notified of a deficit of $31,794 in the County Clerk's fee account of which $2,777 is undeposited receipts. Undeposited receipts consist of money that came into the Clerk's Office but was not deposited in the Clerk's official accounts. The deficit also included $2,372 of expenditures that exceeded the income of her office. In addition, the Audit discovered that the Clerk's Office owes $37,463 to various Fulton County Government agencies, including $14,449 to school districts. Additional findings were that the former County Clerk should have deposited funds intact on a daily basis; should have required depository institutions to pledge or provide sufficient collateral to protect deposits'; should have submitted quarterly financial reports to the Governor's Office for Local Development; and lacked adequate segregation of duties. The Auditor's Office was required to issue a qualified opinion on the financial statement taken as a whole. The County Clerk did not provide auditors with a signed representation letter as required by auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. A qualified opinion means the Auditor's Office cannot give assurance on the accuracy of the Clerk's financial statements. NOTE: For further information on the audit please contact Jeff Derouen at the Auditor's Office. For information on the indictment please contact the Office of Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Langford at 270-236-3536. |
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