PB Browning and 815 come to mind again, somehow… .

Why would a diocese allow any parish to go without an annual audit, if not by an outside auditor, then at least by a parish committee.

This sort of thing can happen even with annual audits if the bookkeeper - or whoever else has access to funds - is clever enough.  I’ve seen it happen and it ain’t pretty.

Why make it so easy, though?  Bet the bookkeeper wished she had started sooner now!

Let’s just all pray for her soul. She’s come to repentance here. That is what God is calling all of us to do.

Mugsie

It’s nice to see the case from this posting closed.  Now the healing can begin.

It seems that this church could have afforded an audit, but smaller churches are unable to budget for audits.  It’s expensive.

Local reports indicate that most of the money was social security money and that the bookkeeper did not transmit w-2’s to the SSA—only to the IRS who tracks income tax withholding.  There is a day school involved which accounts for that kind of money being available.  The actual church itself did not have large amounts and internal reviews were done by cpa’s in the congregation, supposedly with diocesan approval.  The clergy and leadership of the congregation in place during most of this time left to form another “anglican” expression and at the time of this exit an outside audit which included 2003 and 2004 was in process.  Problem was she kept two sets of books.  Because she was transferring the social security money out of church account the bank verifications and contribution statements would not necessarily point to any problems.  The church I attend has outside audits but I am not aware that verifications of social security are routinely done.  If quarterly tax reports were in file then it would not be necessarily obvious that those monies were not transmitted properly.  This may only be a “piece” of the pie but it certainly points to some problem areas of internal control that we should all be aware of.

Wow.  That’s over 100 G’s per year, more than a thou a month. My church would have missed that kind of money the first year—probably the first two months.  What kind of budget allows half a mil to go out the back door over four years?