Clerk’s audit of Convention and Visitors Bureau demonstrates constitutional auditor role
Clerk Sharon Bock, in mid-December, released her audit report for the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), a private nonprofit entity under contract with Palm Beach County to provide tourism marketing services. As the county’s elected auditor, Bock initiated the audit in response to the CVB’s former Controller misappropriating over $1.5 million.
The audit revealed that weak internal controls, combined with “gross mismanagement,” made it possible for the Controller to forge 222 separate checks, payable to herself, over a three-year period, without being detected. The 46-page document details 34 findings and 75 recommendations. Findings include reports of public funds being co-mingled with private funds, $750,000 in withholding taxes not being paid to the I.R.S., and varied conflicts of interest. Overall, lax internal controls and the management environment contributed to the weakness in the operational structure.
An ongoing and separate forensic audit was performed by a private firm at the request of the Board of County Commissioners. The CVB’s former Controller has been charged and the bureau’s President/CEO and the Vice President of Finance and Administration have resigned.
“This audit provides county leaders with the information they need to determine the future of the CVB. I am confident that they will take whatever action is necessary to best serve the citizens of Palm Beach County, and to ensure the county has a viable means of promoting tourism.” -Clerk Bock |
This and other instances of public corruption recently have been at the forefront of the news in Palm Beach County. According to the 2005 Annual Report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, the Southern District of Florida leads the nation in prosecutions of public corruption, reporting a total of 576 cases since 1996.