Internal Controls 101: Check Signing

You Know Your Government Is Corrupt When The City Manager Refuses To Sign The Checks.

By: Libi Uremovic| Original Article at Patch.com

2015-02-22c

Internal Controls 101: Two Signatures are required for each Government Check. The Finance Director and City Manager Sign the Checks. The Checks are then Approved by Council.

Last year it was revealed the both Beaumont City Manger Alan Kapanicas and Finance Director William Aylward has stopped signing the Checks. Councilmen Brian Deforge and Jeff Fox were signing and approving the Check Warrants.

Now that Deforge is gone Alyward is once again signing the Checks, but Fox is still signing for Kapanicas.

Internal Controls are not a complicated mechanism; they’re simple checks and balances to prevent fraud and embezzlement.

Tonight Council will approve spending $25,000 on an ‘Internal Controls Audit’ that is designed specifically to not look at Internal Controls because there are no internal controls in place in Beaumont.

Another basic internal control would be that the Finance Director does not direct or participate in an Internal Control Audit when the Finance Director is the focus of the Audit, but no one on the ‘Audit Committee’ figured that out.