The North Carolina State Auditor’s Office is conducting two audits on the city of Rocky Mount, WRAL News learned Friday.
One for Rocky Mount’s colossal mismanagement of its finances, hemorrhaging money, spending way more than it brought in, and telling its residents that it needed to find $30 million dollars in 10 months, which ultimately involved laying off 100 city employees.
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WRAL News learned there’s a second audit to examine this perplexing issue about residents receiving two bills, just days apart.
Timeline of Rocky Mount’s financial crisis: Millions of dollars missing, higher bills and layoffs
City leaders said customers were not double-billed, but they do say there were failures in the process. However, those failures remain unclear.
The city of Rocky Mount held a public meeting about the utility billing issue earlier January. Some people said they weren’t feeling much better by the end of it.
“I was hoping the final result of this meeting would give them comfort, calm their nerves [and] reduce their stress,” Ward 6 City Council Member Tom Harris said at the meeting. “Quite honestly, you haven’t done that.”
WRAL News has received a ton of emails from people who are confused about the utility situation and the financial mismanagement.
WRAL News spoke with the North Carolina State Auditor’s Office on Friday. The office couldn’t say when these reports will be finished and released to the public.
In January, Boliek told WRAL News it could be released in days or weeks, but he was reluctant to put a timeline on it:
“I don't like putting timelines on this because I don't want to hamstring our team from being able to follow every lead,” Boliek said. “I do know that we have taken numerous different paths toward taking full look at the finances of the Rocky Mount, and again, it's important to get the facts right, to be data driven, and to let the public know exactly money is being spent.
“And the public can expect a very professional, thorough, data driven approach to the final audit result in Rocky Mount.”
North Carolina State Auditor’s Office also looking into Cary
On Thursday night, the initial results came out of the state’s investigation into former Cary Town Manager Sean Stegall's overspending and lack of transparency.
“We are learning something very simple, Cary’s former town manager shared incomplete information and/or different information with different people,” said Assistant Town Manger Danna Widmar during Thursday’s meeting.
A WRAL News viewer asked how does the state’s audit of Cary’s finances differ from the legally required audit delivered to the Local Government Commission.
North Carolina's Local Government Commission reviews audits from every municipality in the state, including the town of Cary and city of Rocky Mount.
However, those don't go nearly as in-depth as what the state auditor's office does.
WRAL News asked former North Carolina State Auditor Beth Wood about it.
“There can be fraud going on and a financial statement audit will not catch it,” Wood said. “It is not built to catch fraud, it may stumble on it, but a financial statement audit that is being required of our cities and our counties, there is no requirement that you will look for fraud or go after fraud, and there can be fraud going on and the auditor misses it.”
The North Carolina State Auditor’s Office comes in when an investigation is necessary, looking for fraud or wasteful spending.