Your money is gone and unaccounted for and four of your commissioners refuse to tell you what happened to it | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

We're talking over $400,000 and a lot of "stuff" to boot

    You can file this one under the "You'll never believe what happened at the County Commissioner meeting."

    Since most of the members of the current Board of County Commissioners have been in office, over $400,000 in cash has gone missing. Missing in the since that it is unaccounted for. And they refuse to make an accounting for what happened to the money.

    But what we do know about it, if what we are told is true, is that the taxpayers of Beaufort County are probably the biggest drug dealer in the county. Or, to put it a slightly different way, the Beaufort County Sheriff's department is the best customer of the drug dealers operating in the county. But we don't know and they refuse to give us the information in other for us to know.

    What we do know is that every year since most of these commissioners have been in office they have given the Sheriff $70,000+/- in cash to "buy drugs." Every year. So it must the gone and most of it never recovered, else why would they need for the taxpayers to keep filling up their cookie jar? Over a six year period of time that adds up to over $400,000.

    At the August monthly meeting the Board of County Commissioners voted 3-4 to not have an audit of what has happened to the approximately $70,000 a year that the Sheriff's Department has gotten to buy drugs. At the same time they also voted 3-4 to not ask for an inventory of equipment the Sheriff's Department has on hand.

    The Gang of Four (Democrats Belcher, Booth and Langley along with RINO Al Klemm) were the opposition to knowing what happened to the drug money and to let the current Sheriff Administration leave office without having to account for where the weapons and other "toys" they've bought over the last few years. But the really amazing thing is their rationale for not finding out where the drug money has gone and where all the guns and stuff are. Watch the video below and see if you can detect their reasons for refusing to have this information known by the public.



    Commentary

    This amazing display of ignorance and arrogance is the worst example we've seen of irresponsible representation of the public's interest in a long, long time.

    What you've got here is an amazing position from Langley, Klemm, Belcher and Booth in refusing to allow the public to know where more than a quarter of a mission dollars has gone over the last few years. About $70,000 has been appropriated to the Sheriff to buy drugs in undercover operations. The public has no way of knowing what happened to that money. All that is known is that it was given to several different people who used it is some way in the drug market in Beaufort County. We don't know what was bought, what was done with what was bought nor how much of the money was recovered. Nor do we know how effective the "buys" were. How many drug dealers were taken off the street? How many absconded with how much money? Did any of the money go for something other than drug purchases? None of those questions are known by anyone except, presumably a hand full of people in the Sheriff's Office.

    What is obvious is that the taxpayers of Beaufort County are one of the largest drug buyers in the county. Think about that. If a significant portion of that money is not recovered, consider what that means. The taxpayers are supporting the drug dealers and suppliers in Beaufort County. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

    But the most amazing thing is that the four commissioners have no rational explanation for why they do not want this information known. Don't be fooled by Al Klemm and Robert Belcher's quibbling over semantics for what kind of audit is needed. It does not matter what you label the audit. The important thing (in any audit) is the questions you want answered. Hood Richardson spelled it out. "Where did the money go?" and for "what purpose?" Klemm tries to confuse the issue.

    But for the record we'll share what we've learned. A "financial audit" is snapshot of what has been done. It seeks to answer the question: "Are the financial reports accurate." The silly thing about that is that the Sheriff does not give them any financial reports on the drug money or the inventory. A "forensic audit" does not look at the financial reports as much as it tracks the money. It answers the questions of "who, what (how much), where and why." It follows the money from beginning to end. A forensic audit is essentially a "chain of evidence" on the money. The "performance audit" Klemm is talking about looks at how efficient and effective the organization's functioning is. Is it staffed and organized appropriately? Are the policies and procedures what they should be? To what extent is the organization achieving its purpose and meeting its goals and objectives?

    In our business you learn very early on that when government officials refuse to disclose information they are trying to hide something. So we have to ask the four commissioners: What are you trying to hide? We're not sure we really want to think about what the answer to that question might be.

    We're not even sure the Sheriff ought to be in the drug buying business. But if he is there should be some very stringent accountability with it. The four commissioners deliberately refuse to impose such accountability. That is unconscionable, in our opinion.

    If the commissioners are not going to find out what happened to the money and equipment then we think the SBI or FBI should. And we think it also illustrates once again why we need investigative grand juries in North Carolina.

    Common sense tells us somebody is trying to hide something. Whatever it is this much we know: The Gang of Four is responsible for it.

    Over $400,000 since these commissioners took office. And they ignore what has happened to it. And that does not include all the "stuff" that has been bought and where it is today. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.