As the Augusta Commission prepares to convene in January, two commissioners are promising to continue to ask for a full financial audit of all city departments, a measure that failed twice in 2021.
District 10 Commissioner John Clarke and District 3 Commissioner Catherine Smith-McKnight say they will continue to ask for an audit on behalf of the taxpayers.
“We have to lead the effort for transparency in government, as Commissioners we have a duty to the public,” Clarke said.
According to Clarke, the measure is not directed at Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. or any specific department, but rather, he says a real forensic audit would help curb public fears of waste and corruption throughout the government such as the federal indictment of District 4 Commissioner Sammie Sias for falsifying documents and lying to the FBI. Sias remains on the city payroll.
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In August, Governor Brian Kemp suspended Sias and the Commission appointed Alvin Mason to fill his seat, but Sias was not ousted completely even though he is alleged to have used SPLOST funds for personal use and carried on an affair at the Jamestown Community Center.
“I just think there should have been red flags all along, someone should have noticed something,” Clarke said.
While Clarke insists that the audit request is not targeted at the mayor, he concedes that the mayor’s spending habits have raised eyebrows and that he has received multiple emails and phone calls from constituents demanding that the commission act and provide the public with a full accounting.
For example, an investigation in early 2021 found that the Mayor’s Office accounting procedures and spending have not always been managed according to required state procedures. Davis was also found to manage a separate bank account out of his office to operate a charitable enterprise called My Brother’s Keeper. That account was funded by former City Administrator Janice Jackson
However, city financial documents showed that My Brother’s Keeper did not operate in Augusta, and the funds earmarked to help mentor young men of color were used for other purposes.
City Administrator Odie Donald removed My Brother’s Keeper from the 2022 fiscal budget, but increased Davis’ overall budget for next year.
Davis’ credit card usage also showed that the mayor spent on television production equipment, consultants, staff lunches and his personal utility bills.
In July, Davis agreed to a self-imposed “audit;” however, critics, including Clarke and McKnight, were quick to point out that the mayor’s audit was not actually an audit.
It was, instead, a financial review, according to the final report prepared by the accounting firm Serotta Maddocks Evans & Co. The report clarifies that the firm’s accountants did not perform an actual audit. The first sentence of the document states, “We have performed consulting services.”
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A few paragraphs later, the report clearly states, “We were not engaged to, and did not conduct an audit, the objective of which would be the expression of an opinion on the financial statement, or an element of a financial statement.”
This left the door open to protect the accounting company. The report’s introduction states, “Had we performed additional procedures, other matters might have come to our attention that would have been reported to you.”
The report did find that Davis’ use of an unsupervised credit card violated Georgia Law and city policy was changed placing restrictions on Davis’ use of the card.
Clarke says he does not have an axe to grind with anyone, but he believes a true audit of all city departments will show the taxpayers that the city’s elected officials are paying attention to the bottom line.
“This is what we were elected to do. I’m not an accountant, so I believe it is best to bring in a professional group outside of our regular accounting firm and let them comb through the records,” Clarke said.
(Joe Edge contributed to this article)
Scott Hudson is the Senior Reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
