This was the first one from Lackawanna county:Scranton Single Tax Office Audit Released
By Ryan Leckey
March 20, 2009
Twelve million dollars of taxpayer money has been sitting in an account for years and nearly half of it should have gone to communties years ago.
Forensic accounting experts are calling it a case of bad bookkeeping and sloppy accounting. Investigators said the former tax collector's office didn't do its job of managing those huge sums of taxpayer's dollars.
The Scranton Single Tax Office collects at least some of every Lackawanna County property owner's taxes.
From 1999 to 2008 investigators from a Philadelphia accounting firm said money was mishandled, tax dollars weren't distributed correctly and it made a giant financial mess.
Related links
Scranton Single Tax Office Audit
Former Tax Collector Now County Employee Photo
Scranton Single Tax Office Audit Released Video
"We have already started, myself and my team, to make corrections when we knew that things needed to be changed, so we're changing it," explained city tax collector Marilyn Vitali Flynn. She took over from Ken McDowell last year when he was elected as the new Lackawanna County controller. "(We are) really working very diligently to makes sure that the people are being treated fairly and with respect and that they money due to them will be there."
When Flynn took over she found an extra $12 million at the Scranton Single Tax office. Investigators said at least $5 million of that $12 million should have gone to the city, county and Scranton School District. Forensic accountants confirmed McDowell knew there was extra money in the accounts and knew there were problems.
"Mr McDowell's position as reported to us was that he was relying on the personnel who were there to take care of the day to day," said forensic accountant Ricardo Zayas.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O'Brien points the finger at Ken McDowell, who ran the office from 2002 to 2008. "Asleep at the switch would be an understatement. People were comotose in this situation. They knew about the problem. It was brought up by the auditors in 2006 with respect to 2005 and they just failed to act. They failed to do anything," O'Brien said.
He was livid Friday when asked if he felt comfortable with McDowell now serving as county controller. "I'm hopeful that staff members who currently serve in our controllers office can do so in professional way and that we can have the accountability we need with respect to county taxpayer funds," O'Brien added.
"Somebody will be looking at this if not on a daily basis, a monthly basis and those issues will be cleaned up as we go forward. So what will happen is the outlying municipalities, the city, the taxpayers will benef in that. It's going to happen now, not in five years again," said John McGovern, attorney for the Single Tax Office.
In a written statement, McDowell said when he took office as Scranton's tax collector in 2002 the office was "broken" and had "an antiquated collection system." He blamed the resistance of his former office staff to implement a new collection system.
As for when the city, county and school district will start seeing the extra money that was found, the current city tax collector said they are in the process of releasing some of it in the coming weeks.
Copyright © 2009, WNEP-TV
