By Emilee Calametti | The Center Square
An audit conducted by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor found that in the 2024 fiscal year, the city of Shreveport had instances of fund misappropriation, eight fund balances in the negative and a $1.6 million IRS penalty.
Major weaknesses and deficiencies were found in several major programs throughout the city. There were 12 total findings in the city’s audit report, four of which were repeated from previous years.
Despite repeated findings, new issues revealed the misappropriation of assets by a Shreveport police officer. This officer, previously under investigation by Internal Affairs, was paid $4,317.22 with city funds. The person is no longer employed by the city and has agreed to pay restitution.
At the end of last year, Shreveport had eight fund balances in the negative – three enterprise funds, two internal service funds and three governmental funds.
For the $1.6 million IRS penalty, the city failed to file Form 1095-C for 2021, which is required under the Affordable Care Act. This resulted in a costly penalty that the city paid in 2024.
According to the report, one significant deficiency is the approval process for wire transfers. Findings showed that these transfers were being approved by the assistant to the director of Finance instead of the director of Finance, which the auditor called an “informal delegation of responsibilities."
The Shreveport Police Department’s compensated absence reports had 72 errors in ending balances, 11 employees with negative compensatory time balances, and one employee used more vacation time than earned. This finding was repeated from the 2023 fiscal year.
Another repeat finding pertained to tracking and supporting financial records for the Property Standards General Fund. According to the auditor, the city does not have adequate ways to track amounts received in property standards categories.
“The city has historically had many issues related to these accounts,” said the independent auditor. “In 2019, they converted systems to MGO and have not been able to adequately obtain accurate reports to support the carryover balances.
"Since the city cannot provide adequate supporting documentation for these balances, we have proposed a correcting adjustment to the allowance to fully reserve these balances.”
As of Dec. 31, there is a balance of $8.7 million that Shreveport is not pursuing to collect in this category.
Other instances found included a police officer receiving a $58,000 salary after going on disability in 2022 due to the department not letting payroll know the employee went on disability. The employee owes $58,000 and has been terminated.