Results From Audit On Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office Released

Tuesday, October 18th 2016, 10:57 am

By: News 9

Tuesday morning, officials released results from an investigative audit into the Oklahoma County Sheriff and his administrative staff over alleged mismanagement of funds.

Back in March, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater hand-delivered the request of the audit to Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones.

The report, released by the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector on Tuesday, listed key findings from the investigative audit:

Inmate healthcare contracts entered into by the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s office created debt obligated for payment by the County. These contracts were not fully encumbered and the Sheriff chose not to pay the contracts even though funds were available at the time payment was due. Obligations of previous fiscal years were paid with subsequent year funds in violation of law. It appears unallowable costs may have been charged against the ‘Aggregate Limit’ of the Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc. contract. Financial data utilized in the calculation of the inmate average daily rate of incarceration included unallowable costs. Two outside organizations are managed by Sheriff Office employees during County work hours. Donations received by the County Sheriff’s Office were not presented and accepted by the Board of County Commissioners. Approximately $900,000 was spent on the purchase of Sheriff vehicles during a time when other obligations of the Sheriff’s Office were not being met. For the FY2015, the Oklahoma County Reserve Deputy program cost approximately $263,855.39. The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office accepted a donation of Sheriff Whetsel’s personal vehicle, after a $28,000 payment was made to Sheriff Whetsel’s spouses’ Trust.

Read the complete report here:

3/9/2016 Related Story: District Attorney Requests Investigative Audit Of Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office

In the DA's request for an audit, some of the accusations included whether Sheriff John Whetsel and his administrative staff violated Oklahoma law. There were seven items in total, including whether Whetsel and his staff created a debt by entering into contracts with vendors or service providers, and then willfully effusing to pay those contracts with available appropriations or special revenue funds.

“They had the money to pay the bill and they chose not to,” State auditor Gary Jones said just after the release of the audit. “It was a conscious decision not to pay those,” he added.

Another question was whether the Sheriff and his staff provided false or misleading information to the Oklahoma County District Court in their request to set per diem rates for county inmates and if they expended all sources of funding in a lawful manner.

The DA also asked the auditor to determine whether the sheriff and or his staff "paid outstanding debt or contract balances for a specific fiscal year with subsequent fiscal year funds"

Among the findings were three improper donations made directly to the sheriff’s office, a violation of state statute according to the audit. One of those donations included a personal car donated by Whetsel after a $28,000 check was written to his wife’s trust.

“The statutes say that they cannot directly accept a donation. we've actually written them up on this before,” Jones said.

District Two Oklahoma County Commissioner Brian Maughan issued the following statement,

“There are a number of findings in this report that raise real concerns about how the taxpayers’ money has been spent – and in some cases apparently misspent – under Sheriff Whetsel’s administration. We were aware for some time that his failure to pay obligations to the jail medical provider had placed the county in financial peril. There are other findings within the report which also match previous concerns I have had over the operation of the Sheriff’s Office, in particular the use of the training facility by outside car clubs.

I am grateful to State Auditor Gary Jones and his staff for the thorough and comprehensive job they did in investigating a number of issues. I cannot speak for District Attorney David Prater and what course he will now pursue in response to the audit, but I have confidence that he will proceed in the best interests of the taxpayers.

Among other money-related matters, the DA asked the auditor to find out "whether there is any relationship between individuals granted a Special or Reserve Deputy position and campaign contributions made by the individual to the Sheriff's campaign fund."

The Sheriff's office has yet to release the statement, as Sheriff John Whetsel is currently attending the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference where he serves as a past president and is also representing the National Sheriffs' Association at highway safety activities.

A spokesperson for OCSO said the sheriff was aware of the audit and “most of it we already knew about.” Whetsel is expected to hold a press conference to comment on the audit at the end of this week.