DAVIS COUNTY, Utah – An audit investigating the Davis County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) has prompted a criminal investigation after a conclusion was made that funds were not used correctly.

The Davis County Clerk Auditor released information on the audit, stating that some receipted fund deposits were delayed.

The auditor found that $34,917 worth of Davis County Correctional Facility inmate funds were not deposited at the time of the audit on April 3. The Commission stated that all public funds should have been deposited by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office in no more than three days. The unreconciled cash receipts that the auditors found appeared to date back to Dec. 20, 2017.

After reconciling the money collected on April 3, the Davis County Auditor said the following funds were missing:

$422.55 in missing cash

$195.00 in missing check/money orders

$2,614.35 in duplicate entries

$370.00 in irreconcilable cash

$200.00 in monies inappropriately taken from an inmate account

$118.00 cash retrieved from an accounting cubicle on April 11

The auditor wrote that when the DCSO Business Manager was asked if he was aware that accounting technicians were behind in deposits of funds, he stated, “Yes. I knew that she was behind in her deposits.” The business manager also stated “I’m a little shocked,” which the audit stated implied he was not fully aware of the problem.

The Davis County Auditor also said in the audit that as of April 21, the DCSO had $400,000 worth of funds that were not processed from electronic kiosks.

“When finance staff were asked if they believed that they had received appropriate training in handling of cash and the financial systems, the majority of the staff simply states, ‘no’,” the audit wrote. The staff also appeared by the auditor to have “little to known training regarding cash handling.”

The audit also found funds not belonging to Davis County in a DCSO safe on April 11. Though the funds were marked, “Davis County Sheriff’s Office,” documentation in the box showed that the funds instead belonged to the Davis County Sheriff Employee Association, and were collected from vending machines in the Davis County Justice Complex.

The Davis County Auditor recommended that disciplinary action be taken against the DCSO Business Manager and an accounting technician by the appropriate administrators, due to the misuse of public money. The auditor also recommended that cash handling procedures be put in place, and better training is given to employees.

The auditor gave the following conclusion as a result of their audit: