Tag: OMB Circular A-133

The Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain helps DMR Director Bill Walker buy his son’s property. A DMR friends and family program update.

Like the systemic political corruption in Jefferson Parish, the unfolding scandal at the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources is like a cheap sweater in that one loose thread has been pulled and now the whole thing is unraveling.  As Karen Nelson at the Sun Herald has reported on each new out house transaction, I sense a growing public outrage, especially now that a not for profit organization with a previously sterling reputation has emerged as a co-conspirator to what strongly appears to be illegal acts involving DMR Director Bill Walker and his son Scott.  Tina Shumate, the person at DMR in charge of the Coastal Impact Assistance Program is also neck deep in the cesspool doing real estate deals with her parents with public money and it is with Tina’s parents brother that we’ll start as she is no ordinary legacy political hack stinking up state government as her daddy brother Curt Hebert is an expert in wallowing in the crony capitalism cesspool dating to his disastrous run as head of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Agency, which in reality regulated nothing expect the lining of their own pockets:

Hebert, a former Mississippi utility regulator who is often regarded as a protégé of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), was named chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by President George W. Bush in January 2001. A Republican, Hebert was first nominated to FERC in 1997 by former President Bill Clinton. During Hebert’s tenure, FERC has been criticized for being too laissez faire, and Hebert’s critics accuse him of being a free market ideologue.

Indeed it was under Hebert’s watch that ENRON price gouged west coast power consumers by manipulating power supplies, causing rolling blackouts and other disruptions that allowed ENRON to profit mightily from selling electricity into the contrived power shortage.  Hebert is an expert in Mississippi style crony capitalism and it appears his daughter sister well learned at his side how to slop at the trough.

What I am gonna do today is link the Sun Herald reporting for those that want to catch up and call bull on DMR Director Bill Walker’s assertion the OIG showing up at his office late last Summer is somehow routine.  A state agency seeing someone from the State Auditors Office is routine though it appears the Auditor’s office, as it concerns DMR corruption, has been asleep at the switch for many years and in my opinion their Johnny-come-lately appearance on the DMR scene is to ascertain the extent of the scandal so it can be contained as I have no faith Governor Phil Bryant wants to see this scandal exposed since it involves so many of his supporters.

But before I get to those links everyone needs to know what a questioned cost is as I get the feeling many people think it is an auditor raising their hand saying, “Oh ohh I got a question about this cost!” as that could not be further from the truth. Continue reading “The Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain helps DMR Director Bill Walker buy his son’s property. A DMR friends and family program update.”

Is there an auditor in the house part deux: Slabbed takes a quick look at West Jefferson Service Corp

We have audited the accompanying basic financial statements of West Jefferson Service Corporation (the Service Corporation), a component of the Jefferson Parish Hospital Service District No. 1, as of and for the year ended December 31, 2008. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Service Corporation’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We did not audit the financial statements as of and for year ended December 31,2008 of the Service Corporation’s 50% joint venture investments in West Jefferson MRI, LLC, West Jefferson Surgery Center, LLC, and West Jefferson CT Scan, LLC which combined represents 110% of investments in joint ventures for 2008 and 119% of earnings from joint ventures for 2008.

In accordance with Government Auditing Standards, we have also issued our report dated April 17,2009 on our consideration of the Service Corporation’s internal control over financial reporting and on our tests of its compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, grant agreements and other matters. The purpose of that report is to describe the scope of our testing of internal control over financial reporting and compliance and the results of that testing, and not to provide an opinion on the internal control over financial reporting or on compliance. That report is an integral part of an audit performed in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and should be considered in assessing the results of our audit.

Auditing step #1 (2008): Determine the financial reporting entity.
Procedures for consideration: Management inquiry, Legal Council Inquiry, Search records at Secretary of State’s Office.
Results: Possible joint venture identified per Secretary of State Search. Shown below: Continue reading “Is there an auditor in the house part deux: Slabbed takes a quick look at West Jefferson Service Corp”

Informed Sources: Another high profile resignation forthcoming in Jefferson Parish. Let’s revisit those pesky internal auditors and lay bare the BS

The banter on the predicted resignation is toward the end of the show. Glynn Boyd of WGNO-TV makes the prediction. I have uploaded the picture of who I think is the next rat to jump ship along with two links that partially explains why below the fold. I also revisit the firing of the internal audit staff one month before Tim Whitmer formed Lagnaippe Industries. Continue reading “Informed Sources: Another high profile resignation forthcoming in Jefferson Parish. Let’s revisit those pesky internal auditors and lay bare the BS”

Is there an auditor in the house? “There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know.” A Jefferson Parish political corruption scandal update.

Actually there is an auditor in the house and we have a report that illustrates why governments should have strong internal and external audit functions. Lets start with Jefferson Parish’s unfolding political corruption scandal as the Times Picayune’s Mark Walter reveals that Aaron Broussard showed the parish’s internal audit staff the door not long after he took office:

A month after former chief administrator Tim Whitmer created the insurance agency that would later torpedo his career in parish government along with that of former Parish President Aaron Broussard, the parish in November 2005 eliminated the position of internal auditor, an official whose duties include monitoring the parish’s financial workings and contracting practices.

Interim Parish President Steve Theriot revealed this week that he learned the Broussard administration had abandoned the job. The revelation surprised some members of the Jefferson Parish Council, although Council Chairman John Young said he remembers the move as a cost-saving measure in the uncertain days after Hurricane Katrina.

Is this Young guy a clown or what in his day job? At best this was an ignorant, penny wise pound foolish mistake but we’ll let the self serving jackasses that make up the Parish Council serve up a couple more whoppers hoping that a gullible public buys into BS in order to drive home the point. Continue reading “Is there an auditor in the house? “There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know.” A Jefferson Parish political corruption scandal update.”