While the Augusta Commission has debated, and debated some more, for three years about conducting a forensic audit, I have slowly and methodically conducted what has been an unofficial, ongoing audit, and the results are finally rocking the commission’s boat in a good way.
The TAP research team and I have looked at both recent mayors’ bank and credit card accounts, the Parks and Recreation Department, Augusta Land Bank and others, where we continue with more research due to be published soon.
I have been accused of conducting a “witch-hunt” in my many investigative endeavors, and I know that phrase is the classic passive-aggressive response of blaming the hunter for finding the prey.
Truthfully, I am not a witch-hunter; I like witches just fine.
I’m a fisherman.
A real fisherman will tell you that it is every bit as pleasing to spend an afternoon on the water and catch nothing, as it is to reel in a few. It is all about the fun and the anticipation that the next cast may reel in a prize; it is kinda like playing the slots without losing a ton of money each time you swing your arm.
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The TAP research team and I have pored over financial documents line-by-line. Much of what we have scoured through shows no obvious misspending, but then a fish like Shawn Edwards passes by and can’t resist biting.
Fish bite out of gluttony and opportunity; that is how they get caught, and that is also part of the thrill of fighting them, once hooked, until they finally give up.
Fishing also takes skill in knowing the terrain around and under the water in determining where the prey may be hiding.
For a reporter, it is vital to have sources who will divulge where the fish are abundant, and I have an army of snitches telling me where to cast a line.
When I release an article about government corruption, it is really nothing more than an angler posing in a photo with the fish he caught.
After seeing the photograph, most people would not question that a fish had been caught; they might question the size or the weight of the catch, but not the fact that fish had been hooked and brought alandside.
At the last Finance Committee meeting, Commissioner Sean Frantom was told just that when he inquired about “media reports” of the spending of the Parks and Recreation Department. Frantom was referring to articles that appeared under my byline at The Augusta Press, which is undisputed as I am the only local journalist to write such an article.
At first, everyone, including the interim city administrator, was keen to tell Frantom, “Carry on, sir. There is nothing to see here.”
Augusta Finance Director Donna Williams had two options when Frantom asked her about those media reports: Williams could tell the truth that a metaphorical fish had been caught gaming the system and remind commissioners that her job as a bean-counter does not require her to be a forensic accountant; or she could just call my research bunk.
It is true that it is not within Williams’ scope of duties to manage, investigate or even question the spreadsheets she is given as long as the numbers at the bottom of the page jive with the budget agreed upon by the commission.
Williams chose option “B;” and her attempt to throw TAP’s reporting under the bus ultimately pushed Frantom to go nuclear, and he made it clear that his constituents wanted answers and not psycho-financio-numero-babble.
Frantom was not having anything to do with the answers he received, likely because he read the article published by this newspaper, and he knew that nowhere did I state that receipts were missing. What I wrote was, “There are no corresponding plane tickets proving travel to a convention.”
Twisting semantics like saltwater taffy, Williams took spin to spectacular heights by proclaiming the entire series of reports produced by this news organization invalid because the TAP research team failed to ask for one set of receipts.
Later, in the same meeting, it was Procurement Department Director Geri Sams who bravely stood before the commission and told it like it is.
This is not Sams’ first time at the rodeo. Department heads have attempted and failed to subvert Sams’ enforcement of city purchasing policies for decades and I can say that, in my opinion, she is one of the best bureaucrats we have in city government.
Geri Sams is no-nonsense in three-inch heels and perfectly manicured nails.
It was Sams’ office that exposed the corruption of the Disadvantaged Business Opportunity Office almost 20 years ago.
With an upright spine, sporting her trademark coif, Sams told the commissioners the hard truth without batting an eyelash.
“Let’s just be real. Let’s just be real, okay?” Sams said. “Nobody’s gonna catch a thief at what they do. If someone decides to circumvent the policy, and it’s in them to do it, they’re gonna find a way to do it.”
Sams reminded commissioners that when she has found shenanigans happening within departmental paperwork, she has been dubbed the “Witch of Procurement.”
According to Sams, since the directors control their overall budgets, payments can be made and even contracts entered without the knowledge of either the procurement or the finance departments or commission by use of fancy bookkeeping, as seems to be the case with the Parks and Rec. Department and others.
Or, what they thought was fancy bookkeeping.
As Sams pointed out, transactions through the city are automated, and that is exactly how I found the records needed without submitting an open records request.
In fact, anyone can track every bank account connected to the city by going to the check registry and following the prompts.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
