Marina audit reveals $93K in thefts
Review points to lack of oversight
STAMFORD — A long-awaited audit has revealed that the former marina supervisor convicted of stealing $60,000 from city accounts in fact took $93,000.
And the city can’t sell the boat that the former supervisor, Sean Elumba, put up as restitution until it can be repaired.
City Auditor Teresa Viscariello Thursday presented the results of her audit to the Board of Finance, which requested the review. Viscariello said she found the additional thefts after she extended the audit back five years, expanding on the three years examined by Stamford police, who came up with the $60,000 figure.
Elumba had access to city accounts set up with certain vendors for purchasing items and materials needed to repair and maintain city marinas. He admitted to buying things not needed for marina work then selling them for cash.
Viscariello said the review was challenging. The marina department’s storage room was a mess, she said, making it difficult to find items that invoices indicated had been purchased. The marina snow blower, for example, was found in the storage room used
by the parks department.
She found invoices that were not signed or dated, Viscariello said, and many invoices contained no description of what had been purchased.
She found no evidence of inventory reports for materials or maintenance records for equipment, and no employee whose task it was to track purchases from vendors.
Elumba was the only employee who signed the invoices, Viscariello found. Purchases failed to comply with the city’s Accounting Policy and Procedures Manual and the Purchasing Ordinance, she said.
She found a general failure to “safeguard marina department purchased assets,” Viscariello wrote in her review.
“This is a matter of lack of internal controls,” board Vice Chair Mary Lou Rinaldi said after hearing the audit results. “That, and out-and-out theft.”
Elumba, who was arrested in May, pleaded guilty to felony first-degree larceny in September. A judge then handed down an eight-year suspended sentence and four years of probation, with no jail time.
As part of the plea agreement, Elumba agreed to give up his boat — a 26-foot Regulator fishing craft built in 2004 — to cover what he stole from the Marina Fund.
The boat “is being prepared for sale,” Director of Legal Affairs Kathryn Emmett told finance board members during the meeting.
“It was stored in such a way that it needs some attention be- fore it can be sold,” Emmett said, adding she doesn’t know yet how much the city can hope to recoup from the sale.
Members of the board have said they want the city to be made whole, whatever the amount — which now clocks in at $93,000.
State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo has said that any additional amount due to the city could be addressed through Elumba’s probation terms.
Elumba’s job was to maintain the marinas, docks, boat ramps, harbor buoys, and other equipment, and manage inventory and operating expenses for his department, including purchase of supplies.
He told police he was struggling with alcohol and drug dependence and resold items he purchased “for money to fuel his addiction,” according to his ar- rest affidavit.
Viscariello told the finance board that, to prevent future abuses, the city should consider purchasing inventory tracking software, or at least create an Excel worksheet for logging purchases.
A city employee other than the marina supervisor must oversee all purchases from vendors, she said, and invoices must include descriptions of items, including photographs, to make clear what was purchased.
A parks supervisor should conduct random checks of the marina department’s storage facility to verify purchases, said Viscariello, who also laid out procedures for submitting and processing invoices.
“How will we track this?” Rinaldi asked.
Viscariello said the operations manager of parks has agreed to implement her recommendations, and in January established new purchasing guidelines for the entire department. She has met with the operations manager monthly to make sure the checks are in place, Viscariello said.
Finance board members in the past have asked whether Elumba, who worked for the city for five years, ultimately earning $75,535 annually, was eligible for a pension when he was fired in 2018.
Elumba did not have enough tenure to earn a pension, but the amount he contributed toward it through payroll deductions — about $5,000 — could be returned to him. Rinaldi, as an officer with the Classified Employees Retirement Fund, was seeking state permission to block the reimbursement.