Officials are hoping an internal audit by a former clerk of court, an impending audit by the state and a program of voluntary drug-testing for county employees will help Union County move beyond the scandals of the past year.

Supervisor Tommy Sinclair and Clerk of Court Freddie Gault announced Wednesday afternoon the results of a preliminary audit by June Miller of the clerk of court’s “bond received fund.” The fund is financed by fines and fees levied by the General Sessions, Common Pleas and Family courts.

In a report to Sinclair, Gault states, based on Mrs. Miller’s findings, there should be approximately $157,986.90 in the account to cover the bonds received by the clerk’s office. Gault states he contacted Monty Lancaster at Arthur State Bank on Tuesday and was told the current balance in the clerk’s account was $429,167.31 of which $299,360 is money received and held for a foreclosures sale. He writes this leaves a balance of $129,807.31 or a negative of $28,179.59.

Gault would not speculate on the reason for the shortfall and/or whether it is related to the activities of his predecessor Brad Morris. Morris resigned as clerk of court in October as a SLED audit of his office was getting under way. A month later he was arrested by SLED and charged with embezzlement of public funds and misconduct in office. Morris is alleged to have embezzled more than $200,000 in public funds for his personal use during the first 10 months of the year.

The investigation that led to Morris’ arrest was initiated after Union County Sheriff David Taylor said he received a complaint Sept. 11 involving a $34 check from the child support account overseen by Morris. While the bank cashed the check, it reported the account to be overdrawn. Taylor became concerned there might be a potential problem with more checks so he contacted Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett to ask that SLED investigate the matter.

Gault, a former police officer appointed by Gov. Mark Sanford to serve out Morris’ term as clerk, said Wednesday when he took office he found the child support account “was where it should be.” However, he soon discovered the clerk’s office was 13 months behind on in its monthly reports on the fines handed down in General Sessions, Common Pleas and Family courts. It is the responsibility of the clerk’s office to collect these fines, keep a record of them and send the money along with a report to the State Treasurer every month.

The reporting process was handled by Morris who Gault said had fallen behind on it, but would not speculate on why this had happened.

To address the situation, Gault called in Mrs. Miller who’d served 20 years as clerk of court before retiring in 2004. Back at work since Nov. 23, Gault said Mrs. Miller had caught up seven months of reports and found the discrepancy in the amount of funds the clerk’s office should have on hand in its bond received fund and the actual balance. He said he believes as Mrs. Miller continues her work of catching up the reports imbalance in the fund will grow but refused to say whether it would equal the amount allegedly embezzled by Morris.

Gault said while his office is still able to meet its commitments to the State Treasurer, over the next five months there may be a shortfall. He said he may have to go before Union County Council to ask for assistance in meeting those commitments.

State Audit

While they welcomed the results of Mrs. Miller’s efforts and said it is helping the county move forward, Gault and Sinclair said an internal audit alone will not help them achieve their goal of restoring public trust in county government. That, they said, will require an outside audit of the county’s books.

Like Gault, Sinclair was appointed by Sanford to fill a seat left vacant by scandal. Sinclair’s predecessor, Donnie Betenbaugh, was suspended by Sanford after being indicted in October on a variety of federal drug and corruption charges. Also indicted at that time were former sheriff Howard Wells and former tax assessor Willie Randall Jr.

Sinclair and Gault said they were considering calling in an outside agency to audit the county’s books when they were notified the State Audit Commisison would be auditing the clerk of court’s and treasurer’s office. They said the commission, which is under the umbrella of the State Budget and Control Board, randomly selects counties to be audited. Gault said Cherokee, Greenville, Allendale and Richland counties are among those the commission has audited in recent years.

The commission’s decision to select Union County for its next audit was welcomed by Sinclair who said an audit by an outside, independent and neutral agency would help restore trust in county government.

“We welcome this, it provides us with a chance at the start of a new year and a new decade to help make us whole,” Sinclair said. “We welcome the outside help and assistance. This helps us establish for the people where we are. It helps make us whole.”

Gault pointed out the audit by the commission would not cost the county anything and could help the offices audited function more effectively and efficiently. He said all his office’s books would be open and available to auditors for their inspection and he welcomed any suggestions they might make for the operation of his office.

Treasurer Dianne Wilkins said the fees and fines collected by the clerk’s office are turned over to her office to be remitted to the state. Wilkins said her office is being audited because of its service as a pass-thru agency for the funds. She said the audit will take the form of checking the books in her office covering the remittance of those funds.

Wilkins also welcomes the audit “because it is always good to have checks and balances.”

The audit is scheduled to take place in early January.

Drug Testing

Sinclair also announced a program of voluntary drug-testing for county employees could soon be implemented. He said such a program is necessary to help dispel attitudes that inspired one woman to make a particularly dark-humored joke about county government.

“She’s come to pay her taxes and she asked ‘Is this where I get my money to buy drugs?’” Sinclair said. “It was a joke but it’s something we have to get past, we have to get past the drug question. I’ve spoken with most county officials and department heads and they all agreed to a voluntary drug-testing program.”

It’s not just department heads and county officials who favor voluntary drug-testing, either.

“A lot of employees were hurt by the last few months,” Gault said. “They’re very supportive of this to let people know we’re in a good place.”

Sinclair said that voluntary drug-testing would begin within the first two weeks of January.