MA: Millions for sheriffs to spend where are the state watchdogs?
Breaking a promise to taxpayers, legislative leaders have failed to begin a top-to-bottom review of Massachusetts’ sheriff operations that could save millions being lost to inefficiencies and questionable fiscal practices found at jailhouses across the state.
Beacon Hill’s inertia comes as the state grapples with one of the worst fiscal crises Massachusetts has faced. Recent state audits have – while noting some financial improvements – raised serious questions about property and money management within many of the sheriffs’ offices statewide.
Among the audit findings this year:
• Awarding no bid contracts
• Running multi-million dollar deficits
• Running civil process divisions at a deficit. Civil process is the serving of legal documents like subpoenas and eviction notices on parties for a fee.
• The Nantucket Sheriff’s use of a personal bank account to handle civil process funds
• Physical inventory like food, office and cleaning supplies not matching warehouse lists and poor controls over items such as notebook computers
• Denying the auditor access to records to the for-profit civil process corporation formed by the Barnstable County sheriff
• Providing free meals to employees in violation of state law
Despite the transfer, which brings sheriffs directly under the control of the state Secretary of Public Safety, sheriffs remain elected officials with administrative and operational control of their jails and houses of correction.
Sheriffs aren’t covered by state procedures standardizing how supplies, services and real property are purchased. Each has his or her own process for buying food, transportation, uniforms, supplies, vehicles and other items.
Sheriffs also control other funds with no state oversight, such as money charged to prisoners for phone calls and revenue generated by civil process.
Link:
http://necir-bu.org/wp/the-pocantico-declaration-creating-a-nonprofit-investigative-news-network/investigations/beacon-hill-broken-promises/web-story/