Rec 2-3 audit: Non-existent records and missing equipment

A special audit of a Houma recreation district’s concession money and assets raises more questions than it appears to answer, with multiple records and accountings requested by auditors not produced, and equipment purchased by taxpayers in some cases could not be located.

The audit of Recreation District 2-3, obtained by The Times through a public records request, does not name any specific individual or groups within the district’s management as being responsible for any shortcomings. It was requested by Parish President Gordon Dove and the Terrebonne Parish Council. Another audit regarding Recreation District 11 is still under construction.  

The audit, prepared by the firm of Bourgeois Bennett, independently verifies holes in the district’s concession processes that are problematic. It also contains a schedule of equipment owned by the district. Some of those items, the report states, could not be located.

You can read the actual report by clicking HERE.

The entire District 2-3 board was replaced by the Terrebonne Parish Council earlier this year. The report covers the years 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Board Chairman Michael Bergeron – who with other members began service after the years under investigation, had not received a copy of the report as of Thursday afternoon, but was provided with a copy from The Times.

It is possible that the audit’s findings may be discussed when the District 2-3 board meets Thursday night.

“We are going to proceed with this in a way that is not going to expose the district to a claim of a violation of civil rights and any discussion will be in executive session if there are named individuals,” Bergeron said. “If the district is owed money the district needs to pursue the money that is owed. If there is missing property it needs to be returned.”

If the board determines that a criminal investigation should commence, Bergeron said, that would most likely be handled by a joint request from the district and the Parish President to the District Attorney.

“Someone has to be held accountable or someone needs to give us an explanation,” Dove said in an interview. “We will share all the information we have with the district attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office and the state ethics board. And we expect them to share with us what they have.”

At the same time, Dove said, a search is underway for equipment listed as missing.

“We don’t want to say something is missing if it is in a field someplace,” Dove said. We are going to find it and what we don’t find we will try to get answers.”

The audit’s purpose was to gain information on the basis of accounting standards. Among the district’s shortcomings based on the report, for items requested from 2015, 2016 and 2017:

• No concession stand policies were provided to auditors.
• No beginning and ending inventory records were provided.
• No inventory or concession sales breakdowns were provided
• No purchase orders, requisitions, receiving reports or other documentation on concession products
• Nearly $2,400 worth of invoices for the district for Coca Cola products could not be traced to the general ledger.
• There was no documentation provided of which cash bank deposits related to concessions sales.

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The auditors noted in the report that they did not intend to provide conclusions.

“We will follow the appropriate formal process that our legal counsel provides for us,” the board’s current chairman said. “We will follow all of the appropriate channels.”

Gordon Dove