City audit: Poor bookkeeping faulted in deficit

By Richard Gaines
Staff writer

Fraud is no longer considered a possible explanation for a $1.4 million variance in the books for the 2007 fiscal year that ended last June 30. In truth, poor bookkeeping and software were to blame.

Those are the conclusions of the auditing firm, Sullivan, Rogers & Co., which was given a $24,000 contract two months ago to make sense of the city's incomprehensible financial books.

Its report, conveyed to City Council and the Times by Mayor Carolyn Kirk, puts to rest the mayor's previous concern that something more sinister than bad bookkeeping was afoot in the city Treasurer's Office, the Department of Public Works, or possibly elsewhere.

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