Report: Former KCS employee used taxpayer dollars for gambling

Roger Underwood

Really appreciate it, man. Seriously, you made good coin ($95,700 annually) and you got to (allegedly) steal, too? Nice.

Whatever.

A former Knox County Schools employee, fired in October for misuse of a school credit card, used public funds for gambling and "inappropriate alcohol purposes", according to a report from the Tennessee Comptroller's Office.

Roger Underwood, 61, who was the accounts payable supervisor, was charged last week with felony theft.

His dismissal helped prompt an internal audit of school system finances including its credit card program. In November, KCS did away with six credit cards it previously had issued to high-ranking officials including Underwood, switching instead to the county's electronic purchase card, or e-card, program and travel card system.

A report issued by the state comptroller's has revealed new details about the extent of Underwood's alleged theft.

The investigation found that Underwood made personal charges totaling at least $10,445 on a Knox County Schools credit card. He admitted that many of these charges were for online gambling, and that he lost $1800 betting in a single day.

He also received duplicate reimbursement of $1,544 for lodging and meal expenses for at least three school system related trips. he charged the expenses to a school credit card, and also requested and received reimbursement from the system for those trips.

Investigators noted that several of the meals Underwood charged to the school credit card appeared excessive.

They also questioned $731 in charges to Underwood's KCS credit card for a retirement reception in Biloxi, Mississippi. The reception charges included hors d'oeuvres, wine and beer, but the party was not for a KCS employee.

State: Roughly $2 million in stolen public money remains uncollected

I got this in earlier this morning from the state and found it interesting, dear readers. Hear ya go:

Theft and misuse of public money continue to be a concern as outlined in two reports released today by the Tennessee Comptroller’s office.

The 2014 Report of Cash Shortages updates the status of money stolen and missing from Tennessee’s 95 county governments as of June 30, 2014. The report documents money stolen during the 2014 fiscal year, as well as previous fiscal years.

The state’s 95 counties began the last fiscal year with $775,221.12 in cash shortages that had not been recovered. During the year, $675,741.60 worth of new shortages were detected. Counties were able to recover $661,981.49 through restitution payments, insurance claims or other means. That left a net unrecovered shortage of $788,981.23 at the end of the fiscal year.

The Comptroller’s office also released its first report detailing cash shortages and other thefts for Tennessee municipalities, internal school funds, utility districts, housing authorities and other governmental entities. These shortages were reported in fiscal year 2013 and earlier.

Fiscal year 2013 began with $1,640,277 in unrecovered cash shortages. During the year, $4,485,021 in new shortages were detected. A total of $4,932,640 was recovered during the fiscal year, leaving an unrecovered shortage of at least $1,154,633 as of June 30, 2013.

“These reports show why Tennesseans should join our office in helping make government work better,” Comptroller Justin P. Wilson said. “I am pleased to note the continuing efforts to recover substantial amounts of public money, but theft remains a problem. I encourage all government leaders to follow auditors’ recommendations and take the necessary steps to prevent fraud, waste and abuse of public money.”

Both reports provide explanations of how the shortages were discovered, methods used to steal the money, corrective steps taken to prevent future thefts and legal actions taken against those responsible.

CLICK HERE for the 2014 report on cash shortages.

CLICK HERE for the 2013 municipalities and other organizations report of cash shortages.