Legislative Joint Auditing-State Agencies

Let's go ahead to start if you could put your minutes out on everybody's coming in with I think we have one or two stragglers coming in. Since. You have the minutes in your email. Okay let's go ahead get started. We have a quorum. We have a motion to adopt the minutes. Richardson representative Richardson a second mix all right let's move on to the reports first up Tom. Thank you madam chair today representing one deferred report and five current reports with findings we also have thirteen reports without findings listed on page one of the summary. Okay we have made a motion. The representative Lane Jean. And representative Richardson. We need to go over that one. Yeah. Okay. I thank you madam chair our first report findings of the department commerce June thirty twenty report in this report contains three findings for those either here in September this report was deferred from the September meeting. Because the committee wants more information and kind of a status update on finding number three. So without objection I'm going to. Kind of summarize finding three free all are to Ritesh Services had notified us of six warrants totaling twenty three thousand five hundred dollars they were paid to the vendor in June July two thousand twenty for services that were not rendered. An ace employee had potentially falsified documentation on behalf the vendor. After being contacted by the AC in July of twenty twenty to vendor return one work totaling two thousand dollars and not been cashed. The AC is actively seeking repayment of the remaining twenty one thousand five hundred. I reside in September the employee was terminated the vendor was deactivated for the AC's case management system in the eighty has initiated a criminal investigation with Arkansas state police. Since the September meeting we search through aces to look for any additional payments by the state to spend or didn't find any and we also try to kind of draw any association. With any other vendors and could never find any association so there were no other findings associated with this vendor. We also look for the employee noted that that employee is not currently employed by the state. As we stated in September we did refer this to the prosecuting attorney I believe there As You represented here that might have a status update the state police conclusive finding. Thank you definitely. If you thank you for coming to the table if you could state your names. Good afternoon members of the committee Joe Baxter Commissioner rehab services. Good afternoon Charles live for general counsel we have services. Could you give us an update please definitely yesterday I spoke with our state police is a point of contact interviews have been done on all the principles of three principles to this investigation the owner is still under interview status and the there's been no change to that no charges preferred at this time so we're just waiting for the state police officer investigations and decide whether prosecution office is going to for charges or not okay questions from the committee. I have one and it is the business required to carry insurance for bad actors. I'm not sure I'll defer my joint council on that I'm not sure sure and I I don't know what I can tell you since the last meeting is Mister bills and indicated this vendors not only been deactivated from our agency case management system but also we gave of sub standard or below standard of in or performance or port to a so so they should be on notice any other potential agency that might want to do business with this vendor that they do get a below standard and they might be to bar completely. Okay any other questions Senator Pitsch you mentioned three people are being. Interview character witnesses whatever. Obviously we reference one in here who are the other two one was a former employee and a of our relationship with the former employee I don't know the nature of that relationship but because the other two and the owner and the owner of the company yes okay. Any other questions. If we could hold this over it so we could keep up with this and keep it coming back to the Committee if that's good with the committee. Okay all in favor. Any post. Okay Mr trump. I believe that's it for you. Thank you so much thank you. The. Our next report with findings of the auditor state June thirty twenty report which contains one finding the Arkansas constitution requires that the independence this is commission set the salaries of elected constitutional officers members of the General Assembly Jess's judges and prosecutors attorneys the eighty response for making the salary disbursements. The AC did not record salary changes for two elected officials that occurred in January two thousand nineteen resulting in over payment to one official and corresponding underpayment to the other Fisher for eighteen months totaling over nine thousand dollars. Yeah we're playing with discovered by the AC and a payment plan was invented beginning in August two thousand twenty to recoup almost sixty five hundred dollars of the overpayment. I'm sure they conclude that completes a finding okay thank you Mr someone from the auditors. Officer can come and speak. Thank you please identify yourself. Thank you would you like to make a statement or give us any information. If you could push a button I'm sorry do you need me to reset my name if you could Jessica Keith deputy auditor thank you so we did discuss this finding with legislative audit we weren't aware that because we had recouped the funds are we're in the process and that it should be reported to them but we are now aware and the any loss of funds whether that be related to payroll or otherwise should be reported per that statute and we will report in the future Instances and we also have implemented some additional internal controls to strengthen our payroll review process. Are there any questions from committee members. I'm COS one or two confused looks. Now. Any concerns. Okay. I'm gonna let them digest for just a minute okay. Yeah I might ask the question fifty eight AM by monthly payments to get this back to right is that what I'm reading here that was what was agreed upon yes Sir sole half a year roughly yes Sir. And both parties are in agreement yes that party mask all of this is that they're both actively following that plan we. Sir any replication of the plan all of sudden and followed. We we can just have it as a deduction that's coming out every time Is sending that both remain we're controlling the process with the yes yes Sir. Okay any other questions. All right saying none. We moved to accept this report. Motion from representative gene. Sir second. President of Watson thank you. Thank you thank you. Mr Thompson okay our next report the Department corrections June thirty two thousand twenty report and this report contains three audit findings. The first finding the AC reported to us a misappropriation of property at the division of corrections center armory involving ammunition and a firearm. Internal affairs of the department corrections investigate the allegation and determine that an employee of the central armory was selling ammunition purchased by the department. With the majority of the ammunition so coming from the Grimes unit. The employee also returned a firearm that was shown to be deactivated in aces and had the Division of correction in House immature number changed. In January two thousand seventeen the grounds unit transferred over thirty four thousand rounds of ammunition to the central armory as it was no longer needed and from there was schedule to be moved in our for disposal. However in our did not receive the ammunition. Based on internal affairs but investigation over twenty eight thousand rounds with an estimated cost of almost nine thousand dollars could not be accounted for. During in house inventory of firearms the rights for unit in April two thousand twenty one a weapon was found was deactivated in aces central AR staff were informed in instructor rice for unit staff to return to deactivate item so that the armor could issue a new firearm. During follow procedures internal affairs could not locate the transfer form for the activated firearm that showed it being received at the central armory. The farm was in return to internal affairs by the same central armory employee that allegedly sold ammunition. Internal affairs has provided all the information to state police which is open a criminal investigation this finding was also referred the prosecuting attorney. The second finding the AC reported us an employee had received an offer a salary increase which resulted in overpayment of wages telling forty six hundred dollars. A mental level employee within the Division of correction instructed you in resource staff that the employee had received a salary increase. The increase was input into aces by the staff without any documentation for someone with authority to approve the change this finding was also referred to the prosecuting attorney. And the third finding daily deposit activity for thirty Davis tested from the inmate bank unit of the Division of Community action. We were looking for segregation duties when we did this testing we noted for days it's not include listing of checks or say for that day four days that include the check listing but not did not indicate who perform the procedure. And three days it did not have proper signature duties as the same individual receive and record of the day's activity. Management also could not provide documentation of supervisory review and approval of any cash receipt transactions board in the state to counting system during the fiscal year. Six for six from the pre number say books maintained by the division of corrections nor center unit we're missing the original or one of the due to copies of the void receipt. Madam chair that concludes the fines for department corrections thank you and we have representative from department of corrections is director grapes here thank you. Director graves if you could identify yourself and. Your associate. Sullivan grace Secretary corrections. Lamont Wembley CFO thank you Sir. Secretary graves. Yes ma'am the morning member members of the sub committee the first two items that were reported this afternoon by audit were self reported by the department to both the legislative audit bureau and Arkansas state police subsequent to Arkansas state police is investigation the local prosecutor in both those situations declined to file criminal charges in response to the behavior. Regarding reported finding one we have changed the inventory procedures for ammo within our central armory instead of the armory itself maintaining that inventory we have added ammunition to our quickbooks inventory control system to ensure that that is monitored at a centralized local cation by our internal audit unit along with the Division management we have also looked at our processes and made the decision to reduce the amount of ammunition that is sent out to local units to only the amount necessary for officers to qualify to carry within the scope of their position and to respond to emergency situations as they may arise. Regarding finding to the employee in question during the departments and part of the senator grace interrupt you this is a big chunk of information that could week taken one chunk at a time I think we have questions on this first one I know I do if I could open it up to the committee if you have questions for Secretary groups on this issue Yes Tosh said Sturch representative Tosh thank you chairman. The director you you alluded while ago that prosecutors had failed to follow through or to prosecute on this one state is that based on the fact that the and that he. It was an internal affairs investigation and he failed to prosecute based on that investigation or is he actually failed to follow through with the state police investigation ours is still pending the state police investigation has been closed the declination letter that I received from the prosecuting attorney did not give a reason and I would and I wouldn't want to as soon as to the rest of as somehow behind that decision. Senator Pitsch I guess my question I was kinda long representative Tosh wheels twenty eight thousand rounds at almost nine thousand dollars that walked away and we're just going to forget that and forgive that I guess. Send. I mean empty do we know the employee involved in the yes we the employee involved is the former armor for the Division and that employee was terminated as in the early stages of the department's internal review into this matter okay I think that's an important statement though that somebody was held accountable for. I have a follow up question this employee was also selling that am I correct yes ma'am was there anything done to recoup some of those funds was his final check captor any other anything done to record that the The estimated value of the loss was not determined until following that employees term termination. Representative Tosh. Thank you madam chair you said something there director I really curious about. yeah I understand the demo that. Was missing did you say the person that actually took them all was selling them all is that correct yes Sir was he selling that to other employees of the department of corrections we believe that the interview that there was a mix of both current and former employees it was any indication from the investigation that the employees at the department of correction news or conspired with this employee to and that they were actually partition of stolen property no Sir there no no indicates since the the to our internal investigation or through the subsequent interviews made by state police and I do will make clear any current employee that was determined to have part dissemination they were given the opportunity to return that ammunition to the department and those employees that still had those that ammunition did return that to the Department there were instances where the ammunition had already been discharged and in those cases statements to that effect were may but. There will be they were all led to believe that this was personal stock of the former employees and not stay property. Thank you ma'am to. Any other questions representative gene. This great how how long was this of a ploy that shall let go with the state of Arkansas. well over a decade. He's who he's eligible for retirement. At some point fees get ten years in that it the and the individual was vested yes Sir is there any way that. That could be taken away from him after. Full of such as. Let's start like this I am not apers expert by any means I don't want to hazard as to what the ability to intercept someone's retirement is you know that's being pursued or looked into I do not Sir okay thank you. All. Any other questions because I'm having that same thought I'm I'm getting matter on the boil here representative Richardson. Thank you Jerry so the individuals who bought the ammunition from the guy at the armory they which is required to return yes is there is no charges filed against them for buying. That property because there will because there was at no point of was state. Please able to assert that there was any knowledge as to the prominence of the enemy ammunition and in this type of situation pursuing criminal charges on those individuals requires that they know the provenance of the M. ammunition thank you. Any other questions. Secretary grace maybe you can answer this one because you follow the proper procedure you turn this employee and who is stealing from from us in the state the taxpayer and and the trust. I'm at a complete loss why with the prosecutor not prosecute can you give us any insight at all no ma'am of the. Again and we referred this matter and to the point that representative Tosh was alluding to their is some complication of private prosecution when Garrity comes into play which is a investigatory standard that applies to predominantly law enforcement situations so when we became almost certain that there was product possible criminal activity we suspended our internal investigation turn the file over to state police did not conduct any more internal interviews in an internal interviews of potential staff and state police picked it up from there but I will say on the record I believe this state police did a thorough investigation into this matter I made with the assigned investigator myself because I feel very strongly as to what occurred here they turn their fall over to the price prosecutor The prosecutor made that decision again their dental clinician letter did not provide any indication as to why that decision was made. I thank you and for the record we did recoup the firearm that belonged to the state as well yes ma'am. Any additional questions yes. Who is the prosecutor. Good question representative thanks. Of the that would be the price public prosecutor for Pablo Jeff Jefferson County. Any additional questions. Right. Let's move to the next section of the report. Finding two is actually how I began my tenure as secretary of corrections I was sworn in on August the second and this was I was made aware of this incident on August the third of twenty twenty former human resources administrator Initiated a increase and her compensation without approval of previous department leadership when this matter was brought to my attention as potentially questionable by OPM we looked into this for. Not even a week before we made the decision to turn it over to state police this was this occurred during the early days of the covid pandemic when governor Hutchinson had instituted a pay freeze on long state employees this M. pro E. did not follow the promotion that this employee received did not follow the approval process set out in governor Hutchinson's no notification to executive branch agencies of the presupposition freeze. During the ASP investigation are previous CFO who at the time supervised this employee stepped forward and get a a statement that that individual gave verbal approval to the former HR administrator that this raise was okay however the paperwork to a process the increase in pay was not signed off on by the former HR administrator supervisor our former CFO the paperwork was signed off by a subordinate employee of the former HR administrator. subsequent to this matter coming to lie down reorganize the reporting structure of our essential HR unit H. R. as now a direct report to me myself and we have instituted I operational policy within the department that any adjustments to compensation for the H. R. ministration must be signed off by the Secretary. And this man I'm sorry of this matter was also referred to state police as previously stated and because the Employees former supervisor stepped forward and made statements to state police that they gave a verbal approval prosecutor declined to follow any type of charters in this situation also. Okay thank you senator grace questions from the committee. Wasn't the same prosecutor wasn't. you yes ma'am all of our own this cases are all all of our administrative cases are generally handled out of that judicial district because those were our of internal affairs unit is headquartered. Can. Senate passed. Question of minus goes more to the culture item D. under finding here's what's right about finding three but it's on finding to you did a thank you congratulations on doing this but can you give a committee any results to this internal audit because. It's a little bit I don't know alarming that someone without the approval to give a raise gave a raise you can audit you dealt with the but then you check to see if any of the other variances of shown that to be part of the culture have you found that have you no Sir any others no so we this is thankfully shown itself to be a isolated incident after this matter came to light one of the corrective actions that I presented to the board of corrections in they adopted is that quarterly are internal audit unit which all reports up through my chief counsel provides a report of all of compensation adjustments process by HR during that quarter that report is not provided through HR as provided direct. Clear to me and it shows the employee the amount they received and the justification and since this time there have been no other adjustments made in this manner. I still have followed by thank the question I have is the supervisor said okay to the real. And H. R. should have caught it as well. The we have two people miss this kind of. This was a. This situation got bad because the employee in question was the H. R. administrator. Who at the time reported to our former CFO both of the those and retired I see a photo retired Previous to this issue coming to light our of former HR administrator resigned a couple days after I placed on administrative leave when I became aware that this might be an issue I be that helps no one exactly the players work yes I'm calling it staff didn't get to that level of sales for the service. Any additional questions. I have one question who would do we hold as the state of Arkansas the final check until keys returned in our last minute things are. In this case if there's any proper property and and will periodically intercept checks because staff didn't turn in any type of quit man that was issued to them or if there is an overpayment or underpayment one thing I do want to make the committee aware of that is even though this a former employee resigned during the investigation I directed our HR staff with OPM's approval to administratively reduce their final compensation to the level prior to this adjustment so any leave payouts they authorized were paid out at their rate of pay a bill for this improper adjustment was process. Thank you any other questions. Representive Eubanks. What's the prosecutor's name. Of the of prosecutor is Kahana. Thank you I'm sorry I didn't hear that. Of the prosecutor for the judicial district is Kyle. Thank you all right the next section. We could go through that I think there was three. The other three petition particular finding just a and I'm do differ finding the explanation of finding three and our corrective actions to my CFO mis Mr Wembley. Okay good afternoon. Of in regards to our internal controls hi did work closely with our internal audit department in accounting department and I actually each area that did have the findings I when I went and I talk with them myself and what we kinda went across things and try to make some corrections as for the first one with the items in the segregation of duties and having things not having not made aware of before whatever transactions I actually went down there and I made sure that what was going on is that there was a. All their they've only had three people in staff and and at the time when when two of them will be off of the one person in the area so I make sure that they have another supervisor that's a fiscal supervisors they can actually sign off an interview items when it when it goes through. on the second item. As for as castor seeds transactions being voided now now what we do we have a procedure is that we actually print those items off and a castle county supervisor actually well reviews that and signs off on it so those items are actually signed off on now and in regards to the The receipts that were pre number that weren't found I've I've talked to that department also two and with that and made them aware of our our actual internal procedures that we already have set up for pre numbered receipts so everyone's aware of that. Any questions. Are there any questions from the committee. Seeing none except that. Mr toms. This will accept that report for filing. Our next report is administrative offices the courts June thirty two thousand twenty report in this report contains one finding. Arkansas Code provides any employer the state who utilizes state owned vehicle for commuting or other personal use reimburses stay at the same rate authorized by the employees agency for reimbursement for private automobile mileage. I review the AC's assign vehicles revealed for employees who utilize state owned vehicles for commuting purposes during the year. As a result these forms we should've reimburse ACA combined amount of almost forty eight hundred dollars. Manager close to finding. Thank you and I believe we have someone here. Keith letters. If you could state your name for the committee please for the record I'm Keith letters and I am the director of finance administration for the admin Office of the Courts. Thank you Sir if you could explain this I think it's a pretty simple one. Yes ma'am It is for boys involved in this but the majority of this related to our our director of interpreters and the. Involved this is direct this director had a vehicle that he lives locally here and he drove to work every day but he he he has to. Fill in for other interpreters on a regular basis and has to has to leave and go to other remote places in the state so. It was convenient to have him. I have this car at home but. Our folks were just unaware we we were lined up on a The vehicle management guide state vehicle management guide that appeared to have the an exemption for constitutional agency and in it as our auditors pointed out it also referred to. The code itself which which which stated that we weren't exempt so. that's how what we didn't catch it we we have to turn over about five years ago and and I don't know if it always been done this way but We we what what are we are resolution was as to how we resolve this was to to take the automobile automobile away from the person that lives here the interpreter the division director so that a. He just has to check out a car if he's going to travel out of state makes it more you convenient for him to to do his job but. What we were about to require him to do the I don't I don't I don't have the details of how much of that four thousand dollars was his but it was most of it was relating to this one person the other people involved or in remote locations and that they were of. Much less if significant amounts than this one but but but but the rule is required we weren't we were doing the part where we were adding a dollar fifty a day for the day city commuted to his W. too but we weren't doing the part where he has to pay back forty two cents a mile and he didn't know it and we didn't know what so And we we caused unfair for this man had been in the job for just a year. To ask him to pay for something that he wasn't he wasn't made aware of in the first place and It's just the way it was so. We we've taken his car away from me in the the other individuals that were involved as minor players those things have been similarly resolved and in some of those cases if it had we have to work with the judge that approved those mileage request to a. To make sure that we correct I path this correct going forward so. Okay thank you have any questions from the committee. Seeing none will accept this. Thank you. Thank you. Our. Sorry about that our next report is a game and fish commission June thirty two thousand twenty report and this report contained one finding. The Arkansas game and fish commission notified us of the following to fess. Twenty may eighteenth and July twenty second two thousand twenty twenty horsepower Yamaha outboard motor was stolen from a trout boat located for repairs at Shawnee Supreme bugs in midway Arkansas and the second one on January eleventh two thousand twenty one. Arkansas game and fish commission staff were made aware of a theft at a storage unit they maintained intuit Arkansas content stolen from the storage unit included research materials office furniture safety equipment and small electronic devices. Incident and police report for fall for both of the status and we also referred this to the prosecuting attorney that concludes a finding. Is there someone for game and fish thank you. Section into the Committee I'm Austin booth and I'm the director of the Arkansas game and fish Jamie Fisher chief financial officer game fish thank you may proceed. Yeah thanks for the opportunity to come for you all day and talk about our our audit we have a statewide footprint over six hundred fifty employees of fighting for conservation and Arkansas and We do not tolerate stuff like this even though it was off of our premises when the staff's occurred I have a high expectation and so does our CFO Jamie that that we take care of what we have we had a robust discussion about this at the senior leadership level a few weeks ago getting ready for our our peak season which were in right now I regret that this before you and what will do better going forward. Thank you any questions from the committee. I'm yes representive Eubanks. I think it's a question for staff at the. Police reports were filed and the lease on the one that this was at a private. Business where it was there for repairs wise is finding. The representative is just something when we're when there's a loss state property is just part of our procedure we report that to you guys not that there's anything that you need to do in this case they follow proper procedures reported to us and file the appropriate place reports you're correct. Thank you. Additional questions. Seeing none except this report is filed. Thomas. Care less report today is the department inspector general June third two thousand twenty report and this report contains one finding. During our review of the agency catcher saying process we noticed some some deficiencies first of the Arkansas fair housing commission. We December we did some reviewing to make sure that checks were that were received were deposited in a timely manner. For the year ended June thirty two thousand nineteen nine of thirty checks we review totaling thirty eight hundred dollars were not deposited timely a time here these were held until deposit averaged about twenty one days. For the year to June thirty two thousand twenty twenty six of fifty two checks that we review totaling over ten thousand dollars were also not deposited timely the time period held until deposit for these average forty two days. And two of these twenty six checks were held for over a year. In addition we review the asus Castro deposits to ensure that the commission check log was complete and discovered for deposits totaling sixteen hundred dollars it had not been included in the check what for the year ended June thirty two thousand twenty. And finally for the fair housing commission are review revealed that the check log did not contain any entry from April second through June thirtieth two thousand twenty. As a result we were unable to determine if any additional checks received during that time period. The office of internal audit submitted for invoices for Corey project hours totaling over twenty four thousand dollars to add to and one invoice of almost five thousand dollars to the office of Arkansas lottery. The Department only able to provide documentation for one payment received from mad for the towing over thirty two hundred dollars confirming that it was not deposited timely. Because the check law was not being maintained for these payments we were unable to confirm with the remaining payments received from at the and lottery we're deposited timely. The last area the office of Medicaid inspector general receives Medicaid reimbursement checks resulting from overpayments. make is responsible for ensuring the check for transfer to the Department you Miss services for depositing the checks into the appropriate Medicaid bank account. Our review of sixty checks reveal that I'll make failed to transfer nine checks totaling almost fifteen thousand dollars to DHS in a timely manner the time period from sage transfer of the checks averaged about ten days. After the close of fighting okay thank you and do we have someone from office of expected general. Thank you. Now if you'll in addition self. Good afternoon I'm Elizabeth Smith I'm the secretary for the department of inspector general and I do have staff here from the office of internal audit the fair housing commission and my finance secretary Smith would you like to bring them up now so they can enter into services reports certainly thank you if you have questions for them. And I guess if you have questions for. I take and we can miss form and we can bring her up. Okay we'll certainly there all right we'll start with the first report from. The fair housing commission. Okay. The band Committee have any questions concerning the fair housing commission report. President Senator fit all right to start with is there an obvious answer to the time delay I mean is there something we're missing here well there's and the time delay for the fair housing commission and this foreman is here she's the current executive director for the fair housing commission but she was not in play during either of these time period so I'll be happy to respond unless you have specific questions related all I guess but I'll be happy to respond there is such a thing as time value of money yes see how someone could benefit a check sitting on a drawer for right up to a year yes so the first limits in the various actions so is there a good answer to why that was taking place. At S. as I understand it that we did have there was an employee who is no longer with the department who was employed at the time I think during both time periods and. When you see the last note of the to check two of the twenty six checks were held from March of two thousand twenty to April thirtieth of two thousand twenty one there was a. Separate safe that was maintained by this employee who was well. A different at this employee is no longer employed had placed those in to that safe but did not notify the other did not notify the finance office and she was ill and away from the office and then she was I'm no longer employed and that we identified a need we knew that there was a check that we were looking for and then we figured out what had happened and where that leads But the others it was just a lack of timeliness and we've got controls in place to cover the issues now. Thank you. Any other questions from the committee Senate one quick follow up we determined no money was missing them that's correct. Okay next portion of the report. That's the A. eight as. Internal audit. Okay this is lottery an internal audit. Office of internal audit we have four invoices totaling twenty four thousand and change. Was there a reason for all of that. The Tonight I am Tony Beeler on the chief financial officer for the department during this time period we had a couple things going on I had an extended extended illness frankly and so I I wasn't there to oversee these procedures not that doesn't offer this excuse is just a matter of fact the the matter of fact it had need to be taken care of this I didn't have controls in place to make sure things were taken care of while I was I was out of the office that's been taking care of now we do have those controls in place and that won't happen again. Okay any questions from the committee. Senator Pitsch again obviously did I read that last paragraph under the first ball it is not being maintained we are unable to confirm that the remaining payments were received to we lose money on this that we know we lost money in this read also money we do have the invoices and we know the invoices to match the checks or deposits that were brought in. Okay so we just didn't get the invoices Keating in is that what we're hearing here would make copies of the checks when they came in. Okay I'm I'm she's whispering in my ear ask questions again. Basically up for invoices with the check for each one of those that should be totaled it clearly says in the second paragraph was able to provide documentation for one of those. I'm assuming the correct answers no money was missing we've found all the money or missing three invoices that we can't find and that's paperwork missing not a dollars and cents missing his paperwork missing not a dollar and cents correct. Thank you want to get that clear. Any questions from the committee. All right with the not on that one all right let's move on to the next one. Medicaid inspector general. Right you want to talk to that this is during a time period when we had slow number of checks that were coming in because of the lack of activity due to the pandemic and we had a limited amount of staff that was in the office that was in the office during this time period and they were just this the staff was not aware of the of the need for a the urgency to put those check have those checks deposited they did get those done but there were a couple of issues that were going on number one they were the only person sometimes in the office and a second late we had to make sure that we were of a coordinate with the Department of Human Services they had some of the office to to be able to make those deposits ten wounded we're not missing any money Senator to your question there was just a matter of instead of making sure that we have these checks in at least a weekly basis and sometimes it was one check but instead we had an average of ten days to make these deposits that won't happen again a promotion. And the checks are always maintained in a safe thank you. Can I ask about the question of your recommendation your reference Mrs Smith that you not be implemented controls every business I'm associated with check in the door gets deposited that same day do you have that control employees. Yes well yes I think we have a minimal tech if we if it's a very small amount it may be held over but I think we're getting this done every day the deposits are made from we take them physically from our office to Department of Human Services but that's a twenty four hour I understand it's mail arrives late or something like that but that is the same day process like most that business entity is required because that's the lifeblood of the company that's correct so that that's in the new controls though we won't see this again. You will not see this again thank you. Any questions from the committee. Seeing none thank you for your testimony thank you for thank you very much. That concludes today's meeting. Thank you for coming see you next time.