GOOCHLAND -- A 27-page report released this morning estimates that shortfalls under disgraced former Goochland Treasurer Brenda S. Grubbs total nearly $230,000.
The report by the state’s Auditor of Public Accounts lists estimated losses due to alleged embezzlements at $180,470 and additional shortcomings due to “accounting errors” at $49,506.
The report holds in abeyance specific findings relative to alleged crimes pending the completion of ongoing criminal probes but offers a blistering assessment of financial practices within the growing county treasurer’s office under Grubbs’ tenure. Grubbs was arrested in February and is charged with 18 counts of embezzlement that ran from June 2010 through early February. She is free on bond and is expected to go to trial later this year.
“The lack of internal controls and the actions of the outgoing Treasurer make it unlikely that we have identified all of the errors, reconciling items and other adjustments necessary to accurately determine all of the assets and liabilities that the incoming Treasurer will assume,” Walter Kucharski, auditor of public accounts, wrote in a report dated April 30.
The report does not go into details of Grubbs' alleged contacts with foreign persons in Africa and the United Arab Emirates, perhaps the most puzzling element of a series of withdrawls Grubbs allegedly made from county accounts.
Instead, Kucharski notes at one point that “basic controls and operational processes common to any Treasurer’s Office do not exist within this Office.”
Goochland currently is being served by an interim treasurer and county officials, in a response to Kucharski, say that most of the many shortcomings have been or soon will be corrected.
It was not clear today what process the county will use to recover funds lost through embezzlement or unaccounted for through procedural failures, but county officials have said the losses fall within the coverage of coverage bonds with the state Division of Risk Management.
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