BLOOMFIELD, IOWA -- A state audit report released by Iowa Auditor David Vaudt Monday cites over $100,000 that were misspent or improperly documented by the Bloomfield Volunteer Fire Department.
This investigation has been ongoing for two years, but the report has just been made available to the public. The report covers from July 6, 2006 through June 30, 2010.
The report identified both unsupported and improper disbursements, totaling $113,958.76 . Unsupported means that the funds may have been spent appropriately, but were not documented properly with receipts or proof of purchase. $104,181.67 of the funds were unsupported, with over $70,000 of that portion used to pay members of the Department with no documentation.
Unsupported funds also include $300 spent on fire extinguishers that were purchased from a company owned by the Department's former fire chief, Robert Hougland.
Under the category of improper disbursements, $8,827.09 was recognized, $4,996 of which were from cash withdrawals and related fees. The report indicates that much of the withdrawals were made by the Department's former Treasurer, Craig Scott, and $276 was taken out of two ATM machines, one in Bloomfield, the other in Las Vegas. The person who made those withdrawals could not be identified.
Funds were also misspent by Hougland, who used $528.42 to pay a personal car loan. Other purchases identified were spent on DVDs, fuel and a purchase at an adult bookstore.
Bloomfield Mayor Chris Miller said the city of Bloomfield has already made changes to the way their city finances operate, and have put preventative measures in place to make sure it does not happen again.
"Unfortunately, they were able to find something, you know, we would have preferred them not to find anything, but we have taken the steps a long time ago, a good year, year and a half ago, to prevent this from happening in the future," Miller said. "All the bank accounts for the Fire Department, all check writing, all funds and everything has been moved in house underneath the city clerk and myself so basically the firefighters' only job now is to fight fires, they don't have to mess around with bookkeeping and stuff like that. So that's the big change that happened out of all of this in the last two years is all accounts for the Fire Department is underneath the city's control now."
Miller said the city will also hold yearly audits now, and keep all receipts to ensure better documentation.
To read the entire audit report, click here.
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