Executed by Salt Lake County Auditor Chris Harding, the report examined seven areas of transactions within the city government and found that multiple did not have formal written policies.

“When you don’t have formal policies written, it’s kind of hard,” Harding said. “Staff and employees in any entity will operate on ‘Well this is how everyone does it.’ But there’s no concrete policy to help hold people accountable.”

Throughout the report Harding addressed instances where transactions were not supported by an invoice or a receipt, but by an email summary detailing the incurred costs. 

“Things can happen when that’s the documentation you’re relying on,” he said. “At the very least there could be errors, but at the worst it’s easy for people to fudge that support.” 

Harding provided specific recommendations for each transaction area and how the city can better ensure the validity of transactions, calling for formalized policies and staff training.

“There’s a lot of trust without verification, and a lot of these recommendations will help to allow the city to add that verification component,” he said. 

RDA Payments

Vineyard redevelopment payments were identified as a high-risk area of the city, with 29% of examined invoices from developers lacking documental support, according to Harding. He found payments had been approved based on email summaries, instead of subcontractor invoices or scale tickets.

“There’s no RDA policy that Vineyard has right now,” Harding said. “There’s no steps that the finance director or your RDA director go through. They’re doing whatever steps they’re doing and then approving it in an email.

“I asked the staff … this amount says $28,000, it could have been $50,000 or $100,000. I’m not taking a shot at (the developer) either. It’s just, there’s a question mark there. And as the city, as the folks who are representing your resident’s tax payer dollars, I would recommend that you ask the questions.”

Harding said subcontractors were billing Geneva-Anderson for work being done, and applying 270% multipliers without “visible contract authorization.” He said Geneva-Anderson told him the Vineyard RDA would reimburse actual costs, and that they considered those multipliers actual costs.

“From the auditor’s standpoint,” Harding explained, “it could be 270%, it could be 150%, it could be 350%, and it’s just getting paid there’s no questions asked.”

He suggested the city work with the developers to ensure incurred expenses are legitimate and, in applicable instances, receive a receipt from a third party that can cross-verify the invoices and expenses.

Employee Cash Handling 

Harding found no formal policy or existing written rules in regards to employees handling cash, though he acknowledged there is not a lot of cash being handled.

In one instance he said public works employees brought a “fistful of cash” into the treasurer, cash they had received from a recycling company in exchange for city property.

“My question is, if they didn’t bring it in, how would you guys have known? There’s no control over that,” Harding said.

He recommended establishing formal procedures, creating plans for when cash is expected to be received, and obtaining a receipt for those exchanges.

He also suggested delineating which employees can handle cash received across the counter or make deposits.

Employee Travel 

Harding said 74% of examined employee travel transactions were processed without a completed travel reimbursement form. He said this occurred because employees were putting incurred costs on a purchasing card and did not need reimbursement.

He suggested the city establish a system where travel expenses receive supervisory approval prior to their trip — regardless of whether the employee pays on a purchase card or gets reimbursed — to create a paper trail.

He added that there were a few transactions where sales tax was charged when it should have been exempt, and in some instances, sales tax never got reimbursed to the city.

“I don’t think we’re talking thousands of dollars. We’re talking maybe in the hundreds of dollars if that … but as the city continues to grow, you kind of want to fix that now,” Harding said.

City Utility Billing

Harding acknowledged utility billing was among the lowest-risk areas, but said there was no formal approval process in place to govern how utility late fees were accessed, and that many late fees for city costs were “wiped off”.

“I know it’s the city, they wouldn’t charge a late fee to themselves, it makes sense they’re going to write it off, but who wrote it off? Did a manager have to approve it? There’s no formal policy there,” Harman said.

He warned that no written policy for late fee billing adjustments creates the risk of a city employee writing off late fees for residents, and suggested a policy be implemented.

Employee Purchasing Cards 

Harding said he tested 100 purchasing card transactions and found that 12% had missing receipts and 14% had missing supervisory approval.

He recommended documenting cardholder and manager approval prior to transactions happening.

He added there were instances where purchasing cards were shared between employees, a practice he suggested be eliminated.

“It seems fine and reasonable until something bad happens. And we didn’t notice anything bad or nefarious that happened, but it would be good to kind of delineate this, spell it out, what is allowed and what is not,” he said.

Food and Hospitality

Harding said he found no formal food policy for the city, and that there were sometimes vague documented descriptions justifying spending.

He said the city should create a policy that establishes beforehand when taxpayer dollars can be expended to bring in food for the city.

“Before the expense incurs there (should be) a discussion with management, a form that’s filled out, it’s approved, and it follows a policy,” Harding said. 

City Vehicles and Fuel

Harding said Vineyard City provided 39 active fuel cards, but said the Commercial Fleet Network, a fuel-card vendor the city contracts with, listed 78 active fuel cards.

Harding also found that no mileage logs exist, and that fuel usage is not reconciled to miles driven.

“All we have is the gas receipt, we don’t know, did it make it to a city vehicle?” he said.

He suggested the city identify cards not being used and clear them out, and implement some fueling policies.