Unit’s errors cost county $21,800
2nd auditor finds AETN employees had conflicting interests

9/11/2009 - Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Michael Wickline

[first part of the story about the Jefferson County Health Unit, 
which includes the phrase "auditors believe funds
were missing but internal controls were so weak they couldn’t
pinpoint who was responsible for the missing funds."]

On another matter, Deputy Legislative Auditor Kim Williams told
lawmakers two employees in the information technology department at
the Arkansas Educational Television Network resigned in July after the
network learned they worked for an agency vendor. That’s considered a
conflict of interest.

[name redacted by me] resigned as the program manager in AETN’s Educational
Division and [other name redacted by me] resigned as technology coordinator,
Williams said in a letter to AETN Executive Director Allen Weatherly.

She said auditors found e-mails and other things on the employees’
computers that showed they were working for an agency vendor and they
were receiving pay for the work.

Williams said [name] also worked as a consultant for the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock but failed to notify AETN about his consulting
work annually, as required under state law, after reporting it in
2007.

The network "has a good set of code of ethics and forms for all the
employees to fill out, and these two employees have filled it out and
did not disclose any of this extra employment or outside consulting
agreements," she said.

The agency is going to ask each of its employees whether they work for
any vendors during their annual evaluations, Williams said.