Todd Paris, Associate Editor and Salisbury Attorney
♦ The Rowan County Commission will meet on March 21, 2016 at 6:00 PM at the Rowan County Administration Building in Salisbury. On the County Commission agenda (go way back into the PDF version to find it) is the rehiring of accounting firm Martin and Starnes to do the county’s budget audit. Do firm sound familiar? They should. Here’s a reminder:
Financial Shenanigans at Salisbury, N.C.’s City Hall? The Public Needs to Know
Martin and Starnes used to perform the same function for the City Salisbury until March 15th when city council, reeling from recent revelations from the Rowan Free Press, chose another accounting firm Elliot Davis Decosimo.
First, in last December’s audit report to Salisbury City Council, new council members Hardin and Post arrived to be handed a 140 plus page finance report and budget audit they never saw previously and were treated to an oral audit report by Martin and Starnes omitting two serious negative audit findings. The audit itself only mentioned the possibility of embezzlement in the city and cited a letter that later revealed actual embezzlement. The second finding was the broadband enterprise fund continues to operate in the negative which is against the law. No surprise there.
Secondly, subsequent FOIA requests uncovered that a Martin and Starnes employee delivered free “perks” of monetary value to Wayne Furches, a city finance department employee, which he solicited, violating city policy and perhaps, much more. The city wisely chose another firm for their next audit and has not invited Martin and Starnes back to “face the music” on these issues.
City Finance Director Wade Furches Asks for Family Perks from Vendor. Vendor Delivers the Goods
Here are the questions needing to be asked by our county commission regarding Martin-Starnes and “The Furches Matter” to make sure the county doesn’t encounter the same problems:
1. Did anyone on Salisbury City Council or Staff instruct your firm to skip over or otherwise omit the two negative findings in your oral presentation last December? If so, who and how? If we ask you to do something similar will you comply?
2. Is it true the entire city council received the audit report the same day of the presentation and no earlier? Can we expect the same thing with us?
3. Do you see yourselves as working for the citizens of Rowan County or just the staff or just the Commission?
4. If one of our employees asks for perks or favors will you promise to report this to the County Manager for an ethics review?
5. Is the employee who agreed to provide the “perks” to Furches still employed with you? If so, was that positive response to provide the “perks” approved by persons in a supervisory capacity in your firm?
6. In retrospect was this ethical and did it violate any CPA/Accounting and ethics rules? Was there an investigation? What was the result?
Answers need to be forthcoming before we trust this firm to be the watchdogs over our county budget, particularly in light of recent events. Let’s get some answers.
Click on both photos below to enlarge:
