Barton County audit criticizes sheriff's office use of certain funds

State Auditor Susan Montee suggested the Barton County Prosecuting Attorney investigate former Barton County Sheriff Shannon Higgins in the recently completed audit of Barton County. Montee said the sheriff didn't account for $2,500 in money meant to purchase drugs.

"We questioned the ssheriff about these monies on Aug. 22 and again on Sept. 10, 2008," Montee's report states. "On both occasions he could provide no documentation or explanation for the funds. These missing monies went undetected due to numerous control weaknesses including inadequate segregation of duties … we recommend the sheriff and County Commission work with the prosecuting attorney to investigate the missing monies and take appropriate legal action. "

The sheriff said he had turned in the missing money along with some additional funds.

"I turned in $2,500 of the monies mentioned above and $240 additional drug buy monies I had on hand and recorded on my ledger to the County Treasurer on Oct. 23, 2008," he said.

Montee also questioned a deputy who lived outside the county using a county vehicle to commute but the sheriff said the deputy was involved with the Community Narcotics Enforcement Team which covers four counties making that use of the vehicle acceptable.

"The county allows a deputy who resides outside the county to commute to and from work in a county-leased patrol truck," Montee's report states. "While the sheriff indicated this officer is on-call for specific investigations, it appears unreasonable for this officer to be on-call when living outside the county."

" The drug task force officer is on call for four counties involved in CNET (a multi-jurisdictional task force); however, I will work with the county commission to address this issue," the sheriff replied.

Montee's reports also faults several other county officials for their financial management practices including the commissioners, the county clerk and the collector/treasurer.

The commissioners come in for criticism for the lack of formal policies and procedures for the use of the county's credit cards, not reviewing the activities of the collector/treasurer, and the lack of bids for some items.

The clerk comes in for criticism for not reviewing employee timesheets and for the way employee overtime and leave were handled.

The collector/treasurer did not prepare annual settlements consistently from year to year and did not correctly distribute tax commissions resulting in more than $33,000 being owed to various unnamed political subdivisions.