The Russell County Sheriff’s Office cited a clerical error as the culprit of a discrepancy in the latest audit of the sheriff’s office by the Kentucky Auditor’s Office.
The audit report indicated a discrepancy of more than $700,000 owed to the fiscal court. Sheriff Derek Polston and the office staff say a clerical error resulted in the discrepancy and the correct amount of money was returned to the fiscal court.
The sheriff’s department uses an accounting software called Sage to manage daily receipts and expenses. However, the department is required to submit a quarterly report to the state detailing expenses and receipts, and the state requires those reports to be submitted in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.
In transferring financial data from the accounting software to the spreadsheet, some data entered was not saved, and resulted in a report that incorrectly reflected zero receipts and expenditures. The error was not caught before the report was submitted and was discovered during the audit.
Polston said since 2018, the sheriff’s office has collected more than $70.7 million in property taxes and said this was a clerical oversight – not a reflection of mismanagement.
Polston said the Sheriff’s Office has implemented additional review procedures to prevent similar errors in future reports.
