Candidate Commentary on the Recent Hancock County Sheriff’s Department Audit Report
This week, The Hancock Clarion published the Independent Auditor’s Report of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Departments’ Financial Statement for the 2024 Calendar Year. This report which was released on March 2nd was published on page 9 of The Clarion this past Thursday, and the majority of the language within was an explanation of what the Audit Process entailed (and what the responsibility of each party involved entailed). Allison Ball, the Auditor of Public Accounts signed the bottom of it, shortly after describing what she called a “Material Weakness“.
The words before her signature is what initially scared people, and those words read as follows: “The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office Does Not Have Adequate Segregation of Duties Over Receipts, Disbursements, And Bank Reconciliations“. You can find the full report here.
I’ve had a few concerned people ask me about this report after reading through it, and they asked me what this finding means…. So I wanted to take the time to comment on this matter publicly, and offer some thoughts.
First… let me ease your mind by saying that I don’t believe there has been any intentional wrong-doing happening within the Sheriff’s Department when it comes to handling money or reporting their finances. In fact, I think the intentions are well-meaning, and that they are doing the best they can with the resources they have. However, this report indicates that there is room for needed improvement which could help prevent errors and/or misappropriation of assets/funds, and thereby spur a greater sense of Transparency and Trust in the Sheriff’s Department.
The truth is, the State of Kentucky is a little more ‘lax’ on the way in which financial reporting is done (see paragraph 2 of the report in the paper). However, there are also ‘General Accepted Accounting Principals‘ that the State Auditor believes – and I agree – should be followed (see paragraph 3). Most businesses have to adhere to such standards, and I believe our local and state governments should as well.
What this report is saying at the core is that there should be more Checks and Balances and general Oversight when it comes to who touches what part of the finances within the Sheriff’s Department.
If you talk to an experienced Accountant, they’ll tell you that it is a Generally Accepted Accounting Practice to keep barriers of separation between (1) the person who receives monies/payments (from invoices, tax bills, and such), (2) the person who pay bills (like contractors or suppliers), (3) the person who deposits monies, and (4) the person/entity who writes and/or signs the checks. This practice is a protection of sorts for both the organization and those citizens and businesses who are utilizing/supporting the organization.
After doing a brief search, there appears to be several counties that had the same issue, including Livingston County which is of equal population size as Hancock (see Livingston’s Audit report here).
If you dig further into the report (again, found here), you’ll find that this issue was also listed in the 2023 Audit (see page 15, paragraph 1)… and is reportedly due to a ‘limited number of employees‘ in which to segregate such responsibilities. So this isn’t merely a reporting issue, it’s also a personnel issue. In fact, here is the direct quote from the report:
The sheriff’s bookkeeper collects payments from customers, prepares deposits, writes checks, posts transactions to the receipts ledger, posts checks to the disbursements ledger, and prepares monthly and quarterly reports. The sheriff or another employee did not document oversight of any of these activities. According to the bookkeeper, this lack of segregation of duties is due to a limited number of employees available to properly segregate these job duties.
This hiccup isn’t a huge issue, but it’s another item I’m adding to my list of measured improvements to the Sheriffs Department in the future… improvements that will help build trust, increase transparency, prevent crime, and increase the welfare of our citizens and those who are tasked with watching over us.
And THIS is why I am asking for YOUR vote in the May 19th Primary…
Hancock County needs someone with Organizational Leadership experience, business management experience, and an entrepreneurial mindset to help improve what has been built upon…and I truly believe I’m the right person for that job.
-Joshua Vandgrift
