- The Morning Call (read it here) reports the sentence and that Nicole's father repaid nearly all of the money owed ($119,700).
- The Express-Times (read it here) reports that Fogel argued she didn't do it for herself, she did it for her boyfriend whom she bought a new car and paid for trips he took with friends while she didn't go.
- The Express-Times (read it here) also has an article on a new whistleblower program at the county to attempt to learn about problems before they become too big by having employees report other employees who they believe are breaking the law. It is an anonymous reporting system and only available to employees.
Seems to me if basic auditing/accounting best practices were in place we would have avoided this issue, similar to the one with the coroners office. What happens if in an anonymous reporting system, people start 'turning in' people they don't like and as a result that person becomes known to be reported/investigated?
2 comments:
Ross,
If Nicole stole from the county to hold onto a boyfried, as she claims, she still did it for herself.
That office had been the subject of two recent mini-audits. The audit recommended that the criminal division employee collecting dough shoukld not be permitted to disburse funds. Twice, that office claimed it had followed the recommendation of auditors. Twice, it was just lip service. So there were good accounting practices in place, but a few employees failed to follow them.
The county collects cash in 33 different places. Human nature being what it is, this is likely to recur.
Having said that, I agree this hotline is just bullshit. There was such a hoitline in place for employees to make reports to the controller's office. I doubt it saved the county a dime.
Many companies have an ombudsman that can field any type of anonymous employee concern including turning-in co-workers for suspected wrong-doing. This is not unusual at all.
Although it is an old practice, it has since gained popularity since Enron, Tyco, et. al.
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