By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – A recent audit of the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office showed the deletion of $55,000 worth of tickets from the records, but officials say none of the money is missing from the department and court records of the violations were not affected.

The findings were included as part of the Sheriff’s Office’s annual audit required by the state office of public entities. The audit, released earlier this month, covers the fiscal year ending June 30.

St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Civil Deputy Jeff Clement said new employees within the department deleted records of about 250 traffic citations issued in 2009 while disbursing money collected from the fines to various agencies that share the revenue. Parish agencies that collect on traffic ticket fines include the district attorney’s office, the clerk of court and the judiciary, Clement said.

Clement added the deletions occurred because some employees were new to the accounting system. Once the problem was discovered, the information was re-entered into the system.

Although the records had been deleted, Clement said the fine money still appeared on the Sheriff’s Office books. He said the $55,000 was noted as a surplus. The discrepancy was discovered when the auditing firm, Kolder, Champagne, Slavin & Co. of Breaux Bridge, discovered one of the tickets it examined as an audit test did not match the computer records, according to the report.

In response to the finding, the Sheriff’s Office said it will increase the number of backups and perform monthly reconciliations of the ledger. The department is now using a new accounting system that limits the ability of lower level employees to delete records, Clement said.

The audit also determined the department does not have enough employees to “segregate” accounting functions so there is more oversight. The Sheriff’s Office responded by indicating that adding more employees is not financially feasible at this time.

A similar finding and response was found in the audit of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, whose audit was also released in January.

The St. John Sheriff’s Office audit determined that the department spent $21.5 million in its 2010-2011 fiscal year, nearly $1 million more than it collected in revenues, compared to $21.1 million it spent in the fiscal year ending in 2010.

Some of the difference comes in part from $1.2 million in capital outlay spending, mostly for repairs to the roof of the parish jail, which suffered damages in hurricanes Katrina, Gustav and Ike. The office is currently seeking reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the damage. The office’s fund balance, or cash reserves, dropped from $5.6 million to $4.5 million during the year.