Erie County auditors are unable to find more than 200 computers and electronic devices at the Department of Central Police Services but assume the items were disposed of as surplus years ago.

It’s a familiar story because Erie County’s records can be shoddy. Until it reversed a decade-old practice just this year, the government kept no central computerized record of assets worth less than $10,000.

That explains why the county’s laptop and desktop computers and storage devices are often hard to locate. For example, when county prosecutors in October examined whether some computers had illegally gone to a political campaign they learned dozens, or hundreds, were missing. But the county Department of Information and Support Services later explained the items, outdated and of little value, had been donated, sold or discarded.

In April, auditors working for Comptroller Mark C. Poloncarz began an “emergency audit” of Central Police Services after learning that at least two computer hard drives were missing. The hard drives contained information related to homeland security grants and were held by former Central Police Services Commissioner Kevin Comerford.

Comerford, in a letter to a county attorney, indicated where he placed the drives for safekeeping as he left for another job. But the drives were never found by the department’s staff, nor did auditors turn them up.

“If those devices are missing and not under county control, there is reason for concern, given the sensitivity of the data purportedly on the hard drives,” the auditors said in their report.

Poloncarz ordered an inventory of computer assets over the initial objections of County Attorney Cheryl Green, who feared the auditors might complicate an FBI inquiry she said had begun. But after meeting with Poloncarz she agreed to the inventory — the first at Central Police Services since January 2000.

“Simply put, CPS records did not adequately document their assets nor could they identify the location and status of many of these computer assets,” Poloncarz said Wednesday in announcing the findings.

Items might have been tagged as Erie County property, but there was no central computerized list for assets worth less than $10,000, a problem not unique to Central Police Services because, as auditors noted, the county’s policy has become muddled since the 1980s.

But Poloncarz noted a change in county policy early this year. He and new County Executive Chris Collins, who took office Jan. 1, have agreed that departments should list assets worth $500 to $10,000 and provide their lists to the comptroller’s office. That process is to be completed by June 30.

A rivalry is developing between Poloncarz and Collins, who responded to the audit by saying that Poloncarz should have been tracking “critical county assets” worth less than $10,000 and only recently agreed to do so as he followed measures instituted by Collins’ deputy, Mark Davis.

“We are pleased that the comptroller has decided to fulfill his obligations and join our effort to protect taxpayer dollars,” the Collins administration said in a statement, adding that its officials will “continue to cooperate fully with the ongoing federal investigation.”

Also contributing to the confusion over the 213 missing electronic devices: “No log is maintained for the final disposition of surplus inventory,” the auditors said.

The auditors went looking for items based on purchase records. The 213 computers and other devices were worth $447,000 when the government bought them.

mspina@buffnews.com

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