An audit of selected county claim warrants conducted after allegations of inappropriate spending by the American Dream Montana organization found no misappropriation of money, but cited several deficiencies in the way claims are processed.

Cindy Dooley, a Polson accountant who contracts with Flathead County as an internal auditor, issued a draft report two weeks ago saying she found that all of the claim warrants reviewed contained enough documentation to provide reasonable but not absolute assurance that the claim was a valid county expenditure.

The eight claim warrants reviewed recently were brought to the county commissioners' attention by former Commissioner Dale Williams, who questioned the documentation and on a larger scale the need to spend county money on items such as a boat and pickup liner.

"I never intended to say they were misappropriating funds," Williams said, "but if they're not complying with county policies, then there is a misappropriation factor."

Williams' concerns came amid American Dream's accusations of lavish and inappropriate spending of public money by employees of the Planning Office.

Dooley's audit was conducted at the request of County Clerk and Recorder Paula Robinson.

The audit found three deficiencies in the way warrants for meals are processed:

- First, documentation of who attended county meetings for which compensation was claimed was not attached to the claim document. Dooley recommended developing an attendance form that must be completed for meetings hosted by county officers or employees.

- Second, in-county meetings were paid for directly by the county instead of each individual paying for his/her own meal and then being reimbursed at the in-state meal rate. Dooley recommended revising the travel policy to exclude the section on in-county reimbursement and instead create a separate policy for in-county day trips and meals.

- Third, expenses for meals were paid for from operating supplies, which is a questionable line item to be used for meal expenses, the draft report stated. Meal expenditures should be coded to a separate budgeted line item, the auditor advised.

Regarding warrants for travel expenditures, the audit found that travel expense vouchers did not accompany claims for transportation and lodging that were paid for with a county credit card. Dooley recommended that all travel expense claims should include a completed travel voucher, and that the travel form should be modified to indicate that it is for all travel expenses, whether they will be reimbursed or paid with county funds at the time of purchase.

County Administrative Officer Mike Pence said the commissioners will consider the findings once a final audit report is issued.

"It's a little surprising to me," Pence said of the draft report, "because over the years I've felt we have had good controls in place."

Changes will be made to tighten up claims-processing policies, he said.

"The main thing we did this for was to see if there was a misappropriation of funds, and the way I'm reading it, there wasn't," Pence said.

The investigation began in-house with Robinson and a team of other county officials, but in the end, Pence said, the team felt it was better to get a third-party opinion and handed the review over to the county's Internal Audit Division.

In her report, Dooley noted that she is not organizationally independent from the Clerk and Recorder/Auditor's office, but I am independent in all other respects as defined by government auditing standards.

A second investigation involving the Planning Office is still under way.

Moonlighting Detective Agency is looking into allegations of impropriety and wrongdoing made by American Dream against County Planning Director Jeff Harris.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com