Today the City County Observer got a copy of the audit of the Ford Center construction project which we respectfully make available to our readers on the following link.
Some key conclusions taken from the audit are as follows:
“Based on procedures performed, the initial deposits to capitalized interest trust accounts were correct but subsequent deposits to the 2010B capitalized interest trust account were incorrect.”
“Based on the disbursements reviewed, the following disbursements were noted that did not appear to be for the construction of the Ford Center.”
“Based on the procedure performed, the City of Evansville did not spend $32 million of local funds on the Construction of the Ford Center.”
“Based on the procedure performed our review of Resolution C-2009-29 indicates that the total cost of design and construction of the Downtown Multi-Purpose Arena was capped at $127,500,000 excluding finance costs, furniture, and prior feasibility studies. Based on the expenditures reviewed, the total amount spent on the design and construction of the Downtown Multi-Purpose Arena from the reviewed funds and trust accounts was $128,279,998 as of December 31, 2012. This amount exceeds the cap of $127,500,000 proposed by the City Council in Resolution C-2009-29.”
“Based on the procedures performed, payments made on several contracts were not within the approved contract amount. Of the contracts reviewed ten were paid more than the contract amount plus (minus) change orders. The total amount overpaid was $1,052,732.”
“Based on the invoices reviewed, all paid invoices were not properly documented.”
“Results of the procedure performed indicates that not all of the deposits to and disbursements from the 2009 BAN A and 2009 BAN B bank accounts and the 2010 A and 2010 B trust accounts were appropriate and/or approved by the Redevelopment Commission or Redevelopment Authority Board.”
You can read the details that lead to the above derogatories and the official City of Evansville response on the following link.
The State Board is a joke! The Supervisor dude is uneducated and he has decided to bring in someone they call Airhead to lead the City audit this year.
Poor supervision from the State Board as well as the same City auditor for over 20 years is why Evansville is in such a terrible mess! I hear that it’s been 30 months since they actually reconciled to anything.
I heard that this arena audit gave the State Board auditor a heart attack!
This audit is very LIMITED in its scope, and yet what was uncovered was deplorable.
Imagine if a more comprehensive audit had taken place:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/constructionindustry_atg.pdf
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A quote from todays WSJ “Sam Antar: I do not believe that most auditors are adequately trained to find fraud and do battle with fraudsters of my former caliber. Documents don’t commit fraud; the people controlling the documents commit fraud. For example, most auditors are not taught fraud psychology — the behavioral dynamics of fraud. Auditors are rarely taught about emotional manipulation and misdirection used by fraudsters to manipulate their behavior during audits and successfully carry out their crimes. They are unprepared for the psychological games played by fraudsters.” This struck me as very close home.
Yes, lost in all this jumble are the six years of contracts between the city of Evansville and SM&G under the Weinzapfel administration, for which there was never independent audits produced as required by statute.
Fraud? Who the hell knows? More to the point in this town: who the hell cares? Evidently no one in a position to do anything about it.
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That’s where your wrong my friend ,the City County Observer cares , I care , you care , there is a whole lot of people who care , their butts oughta be puckered op by now …… Any wrong doers will be caught eventually ….. At least we kept weinzapfel from going any higher in politics ……
I’m surprised that no one has put two and two together about Weinzapfel and Jenny Collins. She was way underqualified to be Controller and then he turned around and created a Utility CFO position on his way out the door. At the minimum, Jenny knows something!
OK. So the audit has discovered lots of lies and malfeasances.
Now what? What’s going to happen next?
NOTHING! Nobody’s going to jail. Nobody’s getting fined. Nobody’s going to be held accountable.
The civic center – the state board – the mayor – the controller – the former mayor – all worthless.
They will be held accountable
There’s a better chance of Wayne Parke answering my questions I asked him on this very site about if Dan Mcginn made offensive comments or not and why Wayne supported a task force decision he hasn’t defended.
Seriously, they do this all the time. They just ignore you, tell you it’s in the past, and then move on to the next thing to mess up before repeating cycle.
I have been a life long Democrate but after all of the “name calling”, “bulling” and refusing to work together for the betterment of the City of Evansville, I am going to incourage all of my family, friend and anyone that will listen to me to vote Republican in the next election. I am so tired of the “name calling” on this website. There is NO proof the Jenny Collins “STOLE” any money. If she did the prosecutor would be looking into this matter. Better yet why don’t you get the State’s Attorney General to looking into all the money Jenny Collins STOLE!!!!! Why doesn’t someone look into the “FACT” that JOHN FRIEND had the City Council hire his buddy GARRETT, who is “STEALING” money every month from the CITY of EVANSVILLE!!!!!
GARRET was hired to do his job (getting paid)is different then screwing all the books up so no one can keep track of keeping records which she did not do (thus getting paid for not doing her job) When it comes to honesty being a democrat vs republican it is not the party but the individual , your either worth your salt or your not and lately only a handful have been worth a darn, it’s ashame Mr Davis was not voted in for the benefit of our fine city , now we have a TWERP that goes DERP
The money spent for Mr. Garrett’s services has been the best bargain this city has received in a long time.
Russ Lloyd, on a personal level, is a fine gentleman, but we are talking about the performance of a professional in the city’s most important financial job. That performance, although he inherited a mess a year and a half ago, has not been up to the desired level that would would have seen the city emerge, before now, from its problems in reconciling its financial ledgers.
It was Mr. Garret who, working on his own, first did the math on the Johnson Controls WiFi contract and presented his findings to the IURC. The IURC agreed that the math did not add up to a savings that would justify the cost of the contract, and disallowed the petition.
That alone, should give you some appreciation for Mr. Garrett’s ability to crunch numbers.
Why would anyone with nothing to hide be concerned about Mr. Garrett looking at the financial ledgers that have been unreconciled going on two and a half years now. Frankly I am surprised the State of Indiana has not stepped in here, since it is a violation of statute every month that those ledgers are not reconciled!
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Press , yes I agree with you on all counts
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