Joe Arpaio's staff misspent $99.5 million, budget officials say

[JonLP24]

Maricopa County Sheriff's officials misspent $99.5 million in restricted jail funds over the last eight years, according to a Wednesday morning briefing by county budget officials who spent the past six months researching the issue.

Budget officials said $84.7 million was misspent from the detention fund, while another $14.8 million in inmate-services funds were misspent.

Budget officials briefed the county's five-member governing board on the misspending Wednesday morning, saying discrepancies existed for years between sheriff's employees' actual duties and the duties reported in county payroll records. As sheriff's employees were transferred around the agency, the payroll records were not always updated, creating a massive financial problem that will have to be confronted in coming years.

County budget and sheriff's officials say new systems have been put in place to prevent future misspending of the detention funds. They are attempting to fix the problem by moving staff around and shifting funds.


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2011/04/13/20110413arizona-arpaio-detention-funds-misspent.html#ixzz1JNAga0Um