AUDIT FINDS more than $38,000 unaccounted for in Prescott’s bond and fine account.

$38,078 in fines, bonds collected by Police Department can’t be accounted for

More than $38,000 is unaccounted for in Prescott’s bond and fine account over more than two years, and the custodian of the money was an administrative assistant who resigned in December, a legislative auditor said Friday.

The employee is now a code enforcement officer with Prescott’s code enforcement department, said Jimmy Locke, a senior auditor for Arkansas Legislative Audit.

Connie Beard was the administrative assistant to the previous police chief, Brian Russell, from February 2014 until Dec. 31, 2016, according to a letter from Police Chief Joseph Beavers and Mayor Terry Oliver to Assistant Legislative Auditor Kim Williams.

In mid-January, a new administrative assistant, Beverly Evans, started to find discrepancies in Prescott’s bond and fine account and departmental equipment fund and she notified Russell, who contacted the prosecuting attorney’s office, Beavers and Oliver said in their letter.

Beavers and Oliver said Russell planned to retire in March. Beavers became the police chief on March 7, and he made changes to remedy deficiencies in accounting and fiscal oversight procedures.

At the request of Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee on Friday voted to defer action on Prescott’s audit report and require Oliver to attend the committee’s next

meeting to answer questions.

Beavers said Oliver was at a separate meeting in Little Rock during the audit committee’s meeting Friday morning at the Capitol. Neither Beard nor Oliver could not be reached for comment by telephone on Friday afternoon.

With a population of about 3,300, Prescott is located in Nevada County in southwest Arkansas about 16 miles from Hope.

Legislative auditors’ review of the Prescott Police Department’s receipts and deposits was requested by Prosecuting Attorney Christi McQueen’s office in Hope, Locke said. The Prescott Police Department employs a police chief, eight police officers and an administrative assistant. Locke said the department uses two bank accounts — the bond and fine account, and the police equipment fund.

The administrative assistant is responsible for collecting, documenting and depositing all revenue received by the Police Department as well as posting fine payments to defendant accounts in the computer system, he said. The person who served as administrative assistant during the auditor’s review period was hired in February 2014 and resigned in December 2016, he said.

Legislative auditors’ review of receipts and deposits in the period from Feb. 18, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2016, revealed a shortfall of $38,078 in the bond and fine account, Locke said.

“It is important to note that the manual receipt books for the period of August through December of 2016 could not be located, so the actual amount of unaccounted-for funds is likely higher than the amount that we are reflecting in the report,” he said.

In addition, checks totaling $34,544 but lacking receipts were deposited in the bond and fine account in an apparent attempt to conceal the unaccounted-for funds, Locke said.

McQueen, the prosecuting attorney, could not be reached for comment by telephone on Friday.