In order to clear the air concerning the facts, in July, 2012 in the effort of tracing ERA vouchers(disbursement approvals) to the trust accounts of ONB, Trust Account #2010B, it appeared that payments where made out of our Trust Account #2010B that did not meet the approval of ERA. However, research was undertaken to determine if the trust account was indirectly reimbursed for those questionable disbursements. The transactions occurred in September of 2011 amounting to approximately $1.434,000 and in April of 2012 in an approximate amount of $208,000. I requested a meeting with the Bank officials in October of 2012 to review the September and April 2012 transactions. During the review, I verified that on October 4, 2012, the Bank had refunded back into Trust Account #2010B, $1,645.000 into our account. When I asked the Bank official, who discovered this issue, that particular individual stated “it was our internal auditor.†I asked precisely, who, by name, and the individual could not recall the name of the I/A auditor. I requested email traffic documentation, and NEVER received the information.
After leaving the Bank, I went directly to the Mayor’s office and had a meeting with Mayors Chief of Staff, Mr. Steve Schaefer, who was every upset about these facts and NEVER once indicated that the Department of Metro Developement had discovered the error. Considering the amount, you would think that the Mayors Chief of Staff would have said, “the DMD had already discovered the error.†Those who doubt this, than ask for the email transmissions between the Bank and DMD. In July, I informed our President of the City Council, Connie Robinson that we were due refunds in the amount of $1.6 million dollars but I’m the reviewing transactions to see if the refunds were inadvertently deposited into the Fifth/Third bank account.
I want to stress that I do not believe that there was any impropriety in this unfortunate event. The Bank corrected the duplication of account names between the North High School and Arena projects. I fully understand how the error happened on the Bank side of things and do not have any negative comments towards ONB, they are a great corporate citizen and add wonderful value to our community.
On May 23rd, in the present of auditors for the State Board of Accounts, concerning the audit commencement meeting for the 2011 annual City audit, I strongly urged the Mayor to request an audit of the Ford Center project and he agreed, instructing City Controller, Russ Lloyd, Jr. to draft a letter to the SBOA requesting the audit. By the way, no one mentioned that the bank reconcilations were not performed from January, 2011 through the time of that meeting.
So, why would we not be surprised that DMD may not have reconciled the disbursements concerning the Ford Center? When I inquired into the baseline record keeping of the DMD of the SBOA, their response was less than positive. So, from May, 2012 meeting up to the discovery of the $1.6 million dollar problem , I called several times to the state examiner inquiring about the requested audit, and NEVER received a return call back and it wasn’t until I personally informed the SBOA of this unfortunate situation, that ACTION was instituted. I also informed the Administration while disclosing to our City Council President in July, 2012 the possibility of refunds.
So, folks, this is my official statement concerning this event. But, let’s look on the bright side, we now have the funding to do the accounting forensics on the entire project.
Finally, If the Mayor, his Chief of Staff and or the City Controller disagrees with this post I invite them to comment!
Signed,
John Friend, CPA and Evansville City Council member
Looks like the political ball is in the court of the administration to correct Mr. Friends statement.
If not, looks like the administration has more political eggs on their faces.
John Friend please think about running for Mayor. The people of this community needs someone with your style of leadership. Your open, honest and intelligent.
I bet once your elected Mayor, your wife would insist that we call her by her first name and not the first lady of Evansvile.
John, don’t run for mayor. Your friends know you and know that you are out for John Friend. If you were the watchdog many think you are, you would have discovered this during the Whinezapfel administration.
I wouldn’t be flaunting my CPA when you’ve been elected by the people to oversee what the City government does. You should be embarrassed that the Controller’s Office is in such a mess. Don’t you know that that Office is full of people who aren’t qualified for their jobs? If they were so good why are you spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of accounting consultants to do the jobs that they should be competent enough to do?
Funny story. I saw one of them State Board Auditors with that former 14 reporter that got arrested over the weekend frequently together over the summer. This sentence was taken down by Editor because insulting remarks.
I saw them a lot too! A lot of times at Taco Tierra
hmmmmmmmmm, I think there are a few things left out of this story. But hey, why be honest about a certain person who USED to work for the DMD and now does not. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. DMD is a screwed up office to say the least!!!
Taken down by Editor because off message
Mr. Friend, I don’t understand how you can say you do not suspect impropriety when you clearly do not know how the error occurred? Why the rush to discount that as a possibility?
Can you clarify the line of reasoning that leads you to that conclusion?
I would personally like to hear from the Mayor and City Controller concerning when they each knew the books were not balanced and when they informed the SBOA, or did they let the SBOA figure this out in the course of the audit… I would also like to make it clear to both the Mayor and the City Controller that one or both of them will likely be the subject of a forthcoming official accusation filed with the Circuit Court over the state of the City books.
Mr. Friend,
You indicate you understand how the mistake happened on the bank side of things, Would you care to elaborate on this. Were the account numbers similar? Can you describe the procedure that led to the mistake in detail at ONB’s end please?
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