Payments to Baltimore County?s Department of Permits and Development Management were neither deposited in a timely manner nor safeguarded against loss and theft, according to an audit of the office?s cash receipts procedures.
“Consequently, the undeposited cash receipts were vulnerable to loss or theft and resulted in lost interest income to the county,” wrote county auditor Brian Rowe in the recent report.
Rowe was unavailable for comment.
The department collected more than $4.6 million in certain fees and cash security deposits for plan reviews, open-space waivers, right-of-way inspections and appeals during the 2005 fiscal year, according to the report.
Receipts are supposed to be deposited no later than the next business day, according to the report, but the majority of receipts in a test of 216, totaling $1.5 million, were held 31 to 100 days.
Undeposited receipts were not restrictively endorsed immediately and were not secured until they were forwarded to the county?s cashier?s office, according to the report.
In his defense, department director Tim Kotroco penned a letter to Lauren Smelkinson, the county?s audit manager. He wrote that the sheer volume of checks ? 1,135 in 2005, not counting fees for open-space waivers, public works agreement reviews and development review panel checks ? makes processing each as they are submitted impractical.
Many, Kotroco said, are processed in batches. Kotroco, who did not return a call for comment, said in his letter he does not believe a check has been lost or stolen since the department launched in 1992.
“This bureau takes great pride in its services to the public and to the development community,” he wrote. “We will work better to improve our internal controls of cash receipts but cannot sacrifice the efficiency of our operation to do so.”
The county?s auditors serve at the pleasure of council members, who could introduce legislation to require changes in the department?s receipt management.
Rowe recommended the county?s Office of Budget and Finance assume responsibility for collecting all cash receipts associated with development review.
