Auditor finds Kaplan chief has separate account without proper documents

By Judy T. Mire, Kaplan editor

KAPLAN - Kaplan Police Chief Boyd Adams is under the microscope following an audit which found he as chief had access to an account unknown to other city officials.
According to Kaplan Mayor Kirk Champagne and the city clerk, they were unaware of this account which was being maintained by the City of Kaplan Police Department.
Chief Adams said the account has been there for 25 years.
“This account has been open since 1990 and has been used by every chief before,” said Chief Adams. “This account is used when people want to donate to the department so we can buy equipment, etc.
“This account was never included in the city’s annual audit.”
Auditors obtained bank statements from May 2010 through December 2014 and requested support for all deposits for this account to determine the nature of the deposits.
The results indicated a total of 59 transactions in the amount of $7,650 were deposited with no support.
The examinations showed the money collected by the department should have been included in the city’s financial records and budget, but were not.
“It appears that the bank account was maintained outside of the city’s budget and not incorporated into the annual audit,” said Mayor Champagne.
“It seems that due to the lack of invoice support, and proper authorization, accepted accounting principles were not followed.”
The account was not being included in the department’s annual audit.
The bank statements also disclosed 100 disbursements in the amount of $11,204, that were made which had no support provided; 40 disbursements totaling $3,225 with insufficient support and 57 disbursements with valid supports.
Because there were many disbursements with no supporting documentation, they may not have been made in accordance with Louisiana laws.
The bank statements disclosed 31 out of the 100 transactions for which support was not provided, were written out to “Cash” totaling $5,241.
The audit also revealed the police department maintained a “cash bag” with a log of receipts and disbursements.
However, Chief Boyd Adams could not provide documentation to fully support all deposits on the cash log.
Chief Adams responded with, “All checks made out to cash were used for narcotics purposes. If the drug buy didn’t go down, the cash was put back into the department’s cash bag. I turned in thousands of dollars to the city because of this. No one before me ever had any paper work to accompany the cash, but I did.”
Auditors were provided with envelopes containing cash in excess of $8,600, which could not be reconciled to the cash log or the checking account.
A copy of the audit will also be sent to the District Attorney’s office later this week.