Ozark Fire uncovers $20,000 fraud

The suspect, who is not being identified by name, worked as the district’s office manager in 2004 and early 2005. When the unusual charges were discovered, according to Ozark Fire Chief Jake Archer, the employee was put on leave without pay and asked to present bank statements regarding the charges in question. The employee did not return to work, and has since been replaced.

“In late January, I found some discrepancies on the credit card, and I decided to do my own investigation as chief of the department before I took anything to the board,” Archer said. “In retrospect, if I had known how big this was going to be I would have taken it straight to them, but I didn’t.”

Archer said he took the information to the Ozark Fire Protection District Board March 1, where he was told that the board was aware of the situation and was looking into the matter. It was later determined, during the course of the board investigation, that financial documents from the department also were missing.

Archer said the charges were clearly of a personal nature, including purchases at restaurants, department stores and hotels.

Four people, including Archer and the suspect, had access to the department cards. Four people also had keys to the department offices, where financial records, that are now missing, were kept. Archer, the assistant fire chief and the newly hired office manager have keys; the former office manager gave her key to board President Teresa Christensen before leaving.

Those four key holders, as well as the rest of the members of the board, are now scheduled to take lie detector tests.

“I welcomed the (lie detector test) because I have nothing to hide, and I told them if that’s what it’s going to take, then let’s do it,” he said.

Ron Cleek, Christian County prosecutor, declined to comment on the case, saying he couldn’t give out information about an ongoing investigation. He did say that there have been no charges yet filed in the case.

Springfield certified fraud examiner Penny Clayton, a Drury University accounting professor, said Ozark officials are handling the case correctly, particularly by putting the suspect on unpaid leave.

“Unfortunately, a lot of times they basically give a slap on the wrist and say, ‘Don’t do it again.’ Most of the time organizations don’t want a lot of publicity around it,” Clayton said. “What the fraud theorists say is that you should really enforce these policies and dismiss the person or take them to court, so the public knows that fraud is not going to be accepted.”

But there are steps that could have been taken to possibly prevent the fraud from ever happening, she said.

“Ideally, there should have been approval before those purchases were even made,” Clayton said. “It is a problem, because a lot of times with departments there’s a lot of different people who have the authority to use a card, and it’s hard to differentiate which are valid purchases and which are not.”[[In-content Ad]]