An internal audit of Brookhaven’s departments found the Municipal Court in need of implementing policies on how money is collected, including probation fees.
At the City Council’s July 26 work session, auditor William Mulcahy gave oral reports on the Finance Department, the Police Department and Municipal Court. The Finance Department and Police Department are running smoothly and are transparent, he said.
However, there were several problems in Municipal Court, he said.
As part of his audit of Municipal Court, Mulcahy said he sat and observed court in session and noticed that when a $730 case was dismissed, there was no program in place to remove that amount from the court’s records.
“That money does not get removed … and most computer software available takes it off,” he said. “Clearly that needs to be fixed.”
Mulcahy also noted there is no clear documentation from the company responsible for collecting probation fines to the city.
“No money is missing,” he said. “But it is probably time to go to bid on that contract.”
He also said there are delays in the time money is collected in Municipal Court to when it is deposited in the bank.
“I can see the money is being put into the bank account,” he said, “but there is no reason why it takes days to do so.”
Mulcahy said he wanted to make clear there was no fraud taking place and he would have a written report ready for the City Council in two weeks.