Letter: Presents reasons to consider a fiscal audit

“Out, damned spot” is a line spoken by Lady Macbeth related to the blood on her hands from involvement in murder. In that play, there was a murderer and an accomplice. In Columbus City Hall there was a confessed embezzler, former CFO Milton Rawle, but are there others with blood on their hands?

The sad fact is that the city should not need a forensic audit but may not have the skills or interest to do the job with its own internal accounting function. Maybe the city could hire an internal auditor as an alternative that could perform some of the retrospective work and strengthen controls for future benefit.

The Dispatch seems to discount the proposal of a forensic audit based on a foregone conclusion Rawle was the only bad actor. The Dispatch alternatively supports a forensic audit if it would provide a greater understanding of the city’s finances and accounting systems. In a recent city council meeting, it appeared that an amount for the docket of claims was unanimously approved without a detail of the claims. This represents a control failure. The city council should be aware of its role as an expenditure control in the accounting system. Each council member is individually responsible for proper diligence.

Perhaps there are more reasons to consider an investigation.

1. The CFO was not the only person bonded at City Hall and may not have acted alone. Those surety bonds may make for easy recoveries if the missing funds can be linked to other bonded officers.
2. The Office of the State Auditor recommended the city consider hiring a forensic auditor. Would it be prudent to ignore such a recommendation?
3. Integrity and truth can be scarce commodities in the accounting world, especially in governmental accounting (just ask the State Auditor, Shad White). Wouldn’t it be nice if the taxpayers of Columbus had confidence in the city’s accounting representations?
4. The crime mystery genre is one of the top selling categories. In Columbus here is a crime story that will write itself. Who all were involved? How much went missing? How long did it go on? Where did the money go? How and why was the missing money classified in the financial statements and what disclosures were made? How did it happen and for so long and for so much without detection? Who benefits from not pursuing the investigation?

Or it could all be ignored and classified as “spilled milk” with no understanding of how the milk got spilt. That is the reason some people consider governmental malfeasance a “victimless crime” because there is no accountability. The historical lack of accountability in Columbus City Hall is a real tragedy but we may now have some heroes of Shakespearean scale.

Will Sanders, Columbus

Editor’s note: The letter-writer is not Lowndes County Port Director Will Sanders.