Audit: Florida lottery department keeps shaky records

Jun 18, 2014, 5:06 pm (7 comments)

Florida Lottery

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The agency overseeing the Florida lottery doesn't exactly have the winning ticket when it comes to keeping track of its taxpayer-funded property.

At least, that's the conclusion of a review conducted by the office of the state auditor general, David W. Martin.

Auditors used the Florida Department of the Lottery's own records, and determined that as of July 31, 2013, millions of dollars in public property purchased and used by the department was poorly accounted for. As a result, officials found it difficult to fully rely on DOL's inventory records to accurately account for purchased items.

Approximately 82 percent of department property in use and costing a minimum of $1,000 per item had either missing inventory dates or information that was more than 10 years old. The audit concluded DOL management's lack of oversight in this area "reduced assurance" that all property items were located during annual inventories.

That includes 178 vehicles costing more than $2.8 million due to missing vehicle identification numbers which are required by state rules. "Without the VIN, the department's property records may not contain sufficient detail to appropriately identify and account for department motor vehicles," the audit states.

Records also indicated 204 items originally costing $919,000 were lost or stolen. The department's response? DOL got rid of the items but failed to properly classify them when they did so. As a test, auditors traced documentation for four items listed lost or stolen and found three were wrongly labeled, though a computer turned up lost.

Property deemed "sensitive" or "attractive," such as electronic equipment, handguns and technology equipment, were not always specified properly in the department's records either.

Why does the Department of the Lottery buy handguns?

"The Florida Lottery Division of Security has 10 state law enforcement positions. Handguns are assigned to those officers. The Department has 22 handguns; the 10 sworn staff are assigned two handguns each. The department maintains two additional handguns in case they are required. The handguns are assigned to the officers for their official duties," Vega Kondrad, a public affairs specialist, told Watchdog.org in an email.

Kondrad didn't say whether there have been any instances in which the handguns were needed.

In all, department records showed 787 items were listed as sensitive or attractive. But a sample of 39 expenses made within a two-year period prior to July 2013 showed 20 items could have been considered sensitive or attractive, but were not included in the public property records, including two-way radios, scanners, an iPad Mini and a conference telephone.

Another 213 sensitive and attractive items were listed as lost or stolen. The department again said they were miscategorized.

In 2012, the Florida auditor general recommended DOL track all applicable costs for each of its lottery games, 47 at any given time, in a single accounting system. That system was supposed to go live in July 2012. A year later, the department had spent $1.5 million in consulting costs on the system, and as of February 2014 it remains in development.

The Florida Department of the Lottery took in $149 million from state coffers last year, and successfully delivered $1.4 billion in proceeds to a state educational trust fund.

DOL Secretary Cynthia F. O'Connell said in a response letter to Martin that she agreed with the audit's findings.

Florida Watchdog

Comments

mrcraft's avatarmrcraft

In light of this, I wonder how well they keep track of scratch tickets?

Sum Buddy's avatarSum Buddy

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psykomo's avatarpsykomo

Quote: Originally posted by Sum Buddy on Jun 18, 2014

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OH "NO" MrorMs or what ever does it matter officer, just

what does it matter??????????????????????????????????

Just try'n 2 make a living selling CD's and T-shirts!!!!!!!!!

DO U REALLY NEED 2 each of them big ham hocks on UR

hip's cause they don't make me feel lucky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         Thud  Thinking of...   Thud

CARBOB

Does this report bring any questions to your mind? Does the State Auditor do an audit on the Auditors of the Lottery Drawings, or are they just dangling in the wind, like the IRS e-mails?

Pita Maha's avatarPita Maha

Hmmm, well this isn't too reassuring! "Lost" property?  Yeah right!  More like property bought by the lottery commission for personal use.

Gleno's avatarGleno

Who knew the D.O.L. had a need for handguns? ( as if they don't have to sometimes deal with a small percentage of a criminal element) 

Many times items are disposed of without going through the bureaucratic procedures.

And yes, sometimes items are stolen or "lost".

Good for the state auditor general, David W. Martin.

Someone has to watch over taxpayer-funded property. 

No No

MADDOG10's avatarMADDOG10

Looks like the legislators need to clean up their own backyard before opening their mouths about someone else's. 

A complete clean up is in order.. 

End of comments
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