Nearly $2 Million in Stolen Public Money Remains Uncollected in TN; Some in RuCo

May 27, 2015 at 09:51 am by bryan


Theft and misuse of public money continue to be a concern as outlined in two reports released by the Tennessee Comptroller's office.

The 2014 Report of Cash Shortages updates the status of money stolen and missing from Tennessee's 95 county governments as of June 30, 2014. The report documents money stolen during the 2014 fiscal year, as well as previous fiscal years.

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Rutherford County Schools, Register of Deeds and County Clerk's offices reported money stolen or missing.

On September 11th, 2014, an investigative report by the state comptroller's office revealed former bookkeeper Pam Tyring misappropriated night school tuition collections of nearly 16-thousand dollars at Holloway Night School. A grand jury indicted Tyring on one count of theft over 10-thousand dollars and one count of official misconduct.

On August 7th, 2014, the register of deeds discovered cash totaling $97.50 from petty cash was missing. The state comproller's office was notified. The register had stored the cash in an office filing cabinet in her office. Subsequently, the comptroller's office performed an investigation but was unable to determine who might have taken the petty cash. The register liquidated the cash shortage from personal funds.

On August 15th, 2014, the county clerk filed a fraud report with the state comptroller's office, alleging vehicle registration stickers were stolen just three days prior. While reviewing the security footage, the county clerk noticed a member of the cleaning staff stealing renewal stickers. The member of the cleaning staff was terminated, however the total number of stickers taken and the value it represented could not be determined.

State Comptroller Justin Wilson says these reports show why Tennesseans should join their office in helping make government work better. He adds he's pleased with continuing recovery efforts but thefts remain a problem.

We have links to the statewide reports and a county-by-county breakdown on our website, WGNSRadio.com, keyword comptroller.

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The state's 95 counties began the last fiscal year with $775,221.12 in cash shortages that had not been recovered. During the year, $675,741.60 worth of new shortages were detected. Counties were able to recover $661,981.49 through restitution payments, insurance claims or other means. That left a net unrecovered shortage of $788,981.23 at the end of the fiscal year.

The Comptroller's office also released its first report detailing cash shortages and other thefts for Tennessee municipalities, internal school funds, utility districts, housing authorities and other governmental entities. These shortages were reported in fiscal year 2013 and earlier.

Fiscal year 2013 began with $1,640,277 in unrecovered cash shortages. During the year, $4,485,021 in new shortages were detected. A total of $4,932,640 was recovered during the fiscal year, leaving an unrecovered shortage of at least $1,154,633 as of June 30, 2013.

Both reports provide explanations of how the shortages were discovered, methods used to steal the money, corrective steps taken to prevent future thefts and legal actions taken against those responsible.

To view the 2014 Report of Cash Shortages online, click here.

To view the 2013 Municipalities and Other Organizations Report of Cash Shortages online, click here.

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