Local

Audit shows $200M missing from East Point

EAST POINT, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has obtained a copy of East Point's forensic audit, and it shows $200 million missing from the city's books.
   
A tax attorney told Channel 2's Dave Huddleston someone could go to jail because of it.

The 28-page audit was done at the city's request after accounting practices were called into question.  Some of the reported practices under the microscope include purchase orders paid with no receipts and employees receiving gifts from vendors and missing city-issued credit card receipts.

Huddleston reviewed the report in which accounting firm Felton Forensics determined the city may have violated multiple laws.  The report mentioned several examples:

-"Equipment purchases of between $20,000 and $250,000 immediately disappearing with no investigative follow-up."

-"An employee asking a vendor to make a church contribution in return for business."

-"Employee removing city inventory for personal use and gain."

Tax attorney A. Jack Fishman, a retired IRS special agent, said something is seriously wrong with the city's bookkeeping.

"Without an accounting, the question then becomes, 'Was something done either wrong through just inadvertence or was something intentionally done wrong?'" Fishman said.

Huddleston called Mayor Earnestine Pittman for her take on the issue, but she said she was sick and unavailable for an on-camera interview. She did say she thinks something wrong was intentionally done. She also said she has asked Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard to consider a criminal investigation.