Off-the-book accounts report causes Dewey Beach chaos

By Shannon Marvel McNaught- Dover Post

http://www.doverpost.com/news/20180808/off-the-book-accounts-report-causes-dewey-beach-chaos

Posted Aug 8, 2018 at 10:00 AM Updated Aug 8, 2018 at 11:17 AM

Citizen charged with theft of document; two audit committee members resign

Two Dewey Beach audit committee members resigned following a meeting Friday, Aug. 3.

“I don’t feel that the town is taking seriously the problems with finance, the police department, the beach patrol,” said Diane Tenhoopen, who resigned after being on the committee for about four years.

Dennis Trencher, who was on the committee about two years, also resigned. In the end, the report that was the topic for the meeting was not approved by the committee.

In March 2018, Salisbury, Maryland accounting firm TGM Group completed phase I of an “agreed- upon procedures” report for Dewey Beach town government. The report revealed the Dewey Beach Police Department had been receiving property from a federal military surplus program without town oversight or proper accounting. In addition, the Dewey Beach Patrol competition team had an off-the-books bank account and was accepting donations without nonprofit status.

TGM recommended a further look at police and beach patrol finances, and the council voted to allow TGM to investigate, short of an actual audit.

The phase II report, the subject of the Aug. 3 meeting, was given to town officials in late July. It has not yet been released to the public, although the public is able to attend audit committee meetings and review the draft there.

According to Tenhoopen, the mayor and commissioners were allowed to edit the latest report from TGM prior to the audit committee viewing it.

“They never told us what changes were made before we got it,” Tenhoopen said. “They didn’t even tell us they did it, I only happened to become aware.”

The agreed-upon procedures report is separate from Dewey’s annual audit, prepared by TGM after the close of the fiscal year June 30.

Theft charge

Although the draft report was available to anyone who attended the Aug. 3 meeting to review, photograph, etc., it was apparently not free for anyone to take home.

Reporters from two news agencies, including Sussex Living, took copies when they left the meeting, without protest. Mayor T.J. Redefer said no one at the meeting was aware the documents had been taken by the reporters.

Jeffrey Smith, of the Dewey Citizens For Accountability, also took a copy of the draft, and that was noticed.

According to Smith, committee chair Larry Silver confronted him in the parking lot after the meeting and demanded the document. Smith refused, and, Smith said, Silver charged at him in an effort to take it. After exchanging words, Smith left with it.

Dewey Beach Police Department Sergeant Cliff Dempsey said that Smith was being charged with theft and disorderly conduct following an incident at the audit committee meeting, in which a complaint was investigated and witnesses interviewed. As of Aug. 8, Smith had yet to turn himself in, although Dempsey was under the impression he planned to do so.

Both news outlets were asked to return the draft copies, according to Dempsey. Silver did not return phone calls and Redefer refused to comment on the situation.

When asked to cite the law that makes a document available for inspection by the public at a public meeting private property, neither Dewey Beach solicitor Fred Townsend, Dempsey nor Redefer responded.

Whether the town can claim that a draft shown to the public is privileged is not clear. However, the town apparently considered the report a draft that has not been approved for public release.

Four negative findings

The draft report found four “deficiencies in internal control.” Those are material, or important, weaknesses in financial policies and procedures.

The first found that financial duties were not segregated among employees in Dewey Beach, which weakens the town’s ability to detect and prevent financial errors and improprieties. The second found the government’s had poor accounting policies and procedures, resulting in financial reports that were not timely or accurate.

Further, the town “does not prepare periodic reconciliations for many of its assets, liability, revenue and expense accounts throughout the year,” and recommended that all accounts be reconciled accurately and on time.

Finally, TGM found that Dewey’s police and lifeguard operations were not properly communicating with town administration on finances.

“As part of the town’s prudence in the management of public funds we recommend ... elected officials take ultimate responsibility to ensure that the managers who report to them fulfill their responsibilities in implementing and maintaining a sound and comprehensive internal control framework,” states the report.

“They just got a pretty bad audit and I’m not sure that they really understand the meaning of it and the effect of it,” said Tenhoopen, who works in financial services and was once an auditor at Bank of America. “I just don’t feel like they’re doing enough, and it’s been going on now for a year.”

Town officials were given the opportunity to respond to each of the four findings. For the division of duties, they said “it would not be cost effective for the town to add additional personnel to ensure complete segregation of duties in the finance department.”