Starke County Auditor Kay Chaffins has asked Starke County Highway Department Superintendent Steve Siddall for an accounting of all scrap metal items sold at the garage. She said her records showed there hasn’t been an accounting of these sales since 2008.
She passed out a December article from New Albany, Indiana at this week’s Starke County Commissioners meeting that stated the State Board of Accounts had released its investigation into the Floyd County Highway Department which concluded that over $11,000 in receipts were not accounted for from 2006 until the end of 2011. The report also concluded that more than $5,000 was deposited into a private account by the department’s head.
There were allegations made by some employees of the Floyd County Highway Department that not all of the money received from the sale of scrap metal was being turned in to the auditor, according to the report.
Chaffins questioned what happened to scrap from bridges that were replaced in the county.
Siddall said that the bridges are taken away by the construction company.
“The bridges are up to the contractor – just like bridge #51 where they removed the old bridge. They are the owner of the bridge once the commissioners award them the contract. For instance, with bridge #156 the contractor came up on a Saturday and hauled it away.” Siddall said.
“To avoid this kind of question in the future it needs to be in the contract that they own the bridge,” Commissioner Jennifer Davis said.
Commissioner Kathy Norem asked to see the contract.
“For the next meeting let’s review that contract to make sure that disposal of that bridge was in their possession. And you need to go back for those years that no receipts are available,” Norem said.
Siddall agreed to provide the documentation.
