A recent audit of Beaumont’s city finances has revealed widespread problems with the city’s accounting controls, State Controller Betty Yee has announced. With 75 of 79 internal controls determined to be inaccurate, the state said it is impossible to know whether hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money was spent appropriately.
The review was launched in May after the discovery of significant discrepancies between the city’s financial transaction reports to the Controller’s Office and its audited financial statements. It came one month after raids on Beaumont City Hall, the home of City Manager Alan Kapanicas and the offices of Urban Logic, which employed several city workers as contract employees.
No charges have been filed.
Beaumont city officials have acknowledged that the recent findings are of great concern, and said they have already taken numerous documented steps to correct the deficiencies.
“Most of the audit findings validate what the relatively new City Council and new City Management team have uncovered this summer,” according to a city statement. “Since the appointment of a new Acting City Manager, Elizabeth Gibbs-Urtiaga, the City has been busy examining the books, soliciting independent reviews of administrative controls, developing new budget cuts so spending is in line with current revenues and City Council adopted new ‘checks and balances’ to address many of the issues highlighted in the audit report. Additionally, the Acting City Manager immediately stopped the questionable use of the BeaumontFinancing Authority’s use of its sellers permit upon her appointment in June."
Read more about the details of the audit and the steps taken to correct the deficiencies here.