This editorial appeared in The (Raleigh) News & Observer.
Wake County taxpayers have forked over $150,000 for an outside auditing firm to review how some employees went hog-wild with inappropriate spending on trips and purchases. So why is the county delaying full release of the auditor's findings? They ought to be matters of public record.
A county spokesperson said the audit materials would be withheld until they were reviewed by the county attorney's office. That might be understandable if legal action were in the offing.
However, that doesn't seem to be the case. The Wake district attorney already has declined to press criminal charges against the spendthrift employees. Will the records now be scrubbed to try to spare officials further embarrassment?
The director of the county's recycling program was fired last June after it came to light that he had taken more than 50 out-of-town trips during a little more than two years on the payroll. The director and five people working for him had ended up charging $161,233 on county credit cards for travel expenses and to buy a range of items of the sort usually found under a Christmas tree. The county's solid waste director, who had signed off on many of the purchases, resigned.
To read the complete editorial, visit The (Raleigh) News & Observer.
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