Audit of Benton Harbor EM: ‘Financial controls missing’
January 16, 2012 Leave a Comment
Sun, Jan 15, 2012
By T. Kelly
The Michigan Citizen
DETROIT — While Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris has been giving interviews in the last few weeks to Detroit-area media that paint the EM process as positive, an audit of Benton Harbor finances reveals continuing debt, a failure to follow basic accounting practices and undocumented spending of federal funds.
After nearly two years in charge, Harris did reduce the city’s cumulative fund deficit by $1.28 million, but overspent the city’s general fund revenues by more than $650,000 in fiscal year 2010-11, according to the Grand Rapids audit firm Rehmann Robson.
At a June town hall meeting, Harris incorrectly reported the city was out of debt and might have a surplus.
More importantly, the audit exposes the flaw of emergency management. The EM law empowers one person to operate outside the view of the public, sell public assets, dismiss elected officials and void contracts. The EM law eliminates the traditional American system of checks and balances that the split between legislative and executive branches provide.
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