Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz today released an audit of Erie County's (the "County") Department of Probation ("Probation") for the period January 1, 2006 to September 30, 2008 (the "Audit"). Among various areas examined, the Audit reviewed Probation's victim restitution account, Probation's collection of probation fees from probationers, internal controls in Probation's cashier's office, and Probation's multiple unlinked computer systems.

The Audit identifies a significant number of findings of concern at Probation.

First, the Audit finds that despite prior Comptroller audits in 1995, 1998 and 2000 noting this problem, Probation continued to fail to transfer money from its victim restitution account and pay victims of probationers, as well as conduct monthly bank account reconciliations. As a result, there was nearly $750,000 in cash in the account which should have been timely distributed to victims but which was not and the source of or pending disposition for $337,693 of the $750,000 in cash on hand could not be determined as of November 30, 2008

Poloncarz said, "I am troubled that despite three prior audits noting problems with the restitution account, Probation officials - many serving under prior administrations - did nothing to address these deficiencies. As a result, my office's Division of Accounting has taken responsibility for helping Probation address this matter, including conducting monthly bank reconciliations of the account."

He added, "The County collected nearly $750,000 from probationers that are due to the victims of the original crimes. Probation cannot identify which victims are owed over $337,000 that is held by the County. Those victims not only must be identified, located and paid, but should have been paid in a timely manner."

Second, despite new and enhanced probationer fees imposed by the County starting in 2005, Probation not only failed to pursue and collect these fees from probationers, but some Probation employees actively resisted such collection efforts. As a result, probation fees totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars have not been collected and available for use for enhanced probation supervision. Only after the Comptroller's Office began aggressive efforts in late 2007 and 2008 to address these issues with Probation did fee collection and revenues start to increase.

"We discovered in late 2007 and throughout 2008 that some probation officers were resisting efforts to collect probationer fees and Probation was not actively working to assess and collect probation fees. Once my office began aggressive efforts to pursue timely collection of the fees - all of which go to support Probation enforcement - did we begin to receive cooperation from Probation management and progress has been made," said Poloncarz.

Third, existing Probation computer and other systems and mechanisms for tracking probationer payment of fees or fee waivers have failed, leading to significant accounts receivables and late collection efforts that will likely never be successful. In addition, this contributes to negative variances in the County's budget due to lower than budgeted probationer fee revenue.

Fourth, the Audit found serious internal control deficiencies in Probation's cashier's office for the receipt and deposit of probationer fees and restitution payments. The Audit found and Probation officials confirmed no supervisory or management oversight of the cashier's function.

Poloncarz noted, "Our finding of no supervisory oversight of the Cashier's Office and poor internal controls reflects systemic problems by Probation administration going back many years." He added, "Our office has provided numerous recommendations that we believe will rectify many of these findings and the current Probation administration appears to agree with those recommendations. In the end, we hope and believe Probation management will take those immediate steps to resolve the lack of oversight and supervision and implement measures to improve controls over that function."