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| After $51,000 discrepancy found in club accounts |
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Friday, July 31, 2009
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
More safeguards are planned at the Laurel Park Community Boosters Club Inc. after a state audit found a $51,000 discrepancy with club accounts for the second time in less than five years.
The boosters club operates bingo games at Valley Hall in Laurel Park to raise funds to benefit local schools and community organizations. The discrepancy in the instant bingo inventory was discovered during a routine audit for the first six months of 2008, Randy Smith, assistant Henry County commonwealth’s attorney, has said.
Boosters President Jeff Franklin said as a result, safeguards will be implemented, including increasing the number of people who oversee the club’s inventory of bingo supplies.
Generally, two people are responsible for oversight, with one person assigned to each of two types of games — instant and card, Franklin said.
“The instant side is kind of like the (state) lottery,” with tickets sold for $1 apiece, Franklin said. Instead of scratch-off tickets associated with the lottery, instant bingo winnings are displayed by “pulling tabs.”
The second type of bingo is called a paper game, Franklin said. In this game, a player uses a marker to dab numbers shown on the several bingo cards on each sheet of paper, he said.
“In years past, we have played up to 10 instant games” per night, he said.
Instant game cards include information that shows how much profit the club will make, Franklin said. For illustration purposes, he used $580. “After selling the game” and paying the winner(s), the club should have a profit of $580.
“It is possible that someone could play the game and put that money in their pocket” rather than accounting for it, Franklin said.
Discrepancies also may be found when ticket/game information is entered into a computer because the computer calculates how much money should be on hand, he said.
For instance, “if the computer says you need to have $4,580 and you have $4,480,” an individual selling the tickets could have kept $100 or didn’t give the correct amount of change to a player, Franklin said.
Although he has not talked to any of the players since the discrepancy became public, Franklin said he has talked to some of the volunteers who work at the bingo events.
“They’re pretty mad,” Franklin said. “They think it’s pretty bad when you go down there and work four or five hours a week” and then someone essentially steals some of the funds raised that were intended to benefit the community.
He is not sure of the exact amount raised by the club each year, but estimated it is more than $100,000.
A portion of those funds are divided among schools, and other funds are distributed to area nonprofit agencies, Franklin said, including Grace Network, the Community Storehouse and the American Red Cross.
The club also helps the community by letting other organizations use its building for free, Franklin said.
The $51,000 discrepancy currently being investigated is the second time a problem with the club’s funds has occurred in less than five years.
“I really don’t know how it happened again, to tell you the truth,” Franklin said.
A routine audit of the club, formerly called the Laurel Park High School Boosters, conducted by the state Charitable Gaming Division showed discrepancies of more than $51,000 in late 2004.
Franklin does not know how often the state conducts audits, but he said he asked the state to do both audits.
In the 2004 incident, the club’s former president was authorized to use the club’s credit card to buy items for the club. The club obtained a civil judgment against her in December 2004 for $10,978.61, and she began making payments of $250 per month, according to previous reports.
The woman was indicted on an embezzlement charge following the state audit and pleaded guilty to a charge of embezzling money or property with a value of $200 or more. She was sentenced in early 2006 to five years suspended and three years on probation and ordered to make restitution of $9,778.61, according to court records.
Last week, Tiffany Tennille Watkins 28, of 581 Colonial Drive, Collinsville, was indicted by a Henry County grand jury on one count of embezzlement from the booster club.
Watkins oversaw the inventory for the instant games, Franklin said.
Watkins’ indictment allegedly involves between $600 and $700, Smith said. A court date has not been set. |
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