Auditor of State, Keith Faber, released last week, the Adams Metropolitan Housing Authority (Adams County) audit that issues a finding for recovery totaling $11,780 against the authority’s project manager, Donna Hendrix.
Hendrix was responsible for managing some of the authority’s public housing units, which included collecting tenant monthly rent payments and depositing the monies into the official bank account. The audit found multiple instances of missing deposits.
“Checks and balances are pivotal to identifying financial fraud going on within an office,” said Auditor Faber. “Almost $12,000 was stolen by a person that was trusted with taxpayer dollars and it will not be tolerated.”
From January 1, 2013, through May 9, 2017, 46 manual cash receipts totaling $11,116 issued by Ms. Hendrix to tenants for monthly rent payments were not recorded in the Authority’s system or deposited into the Authority’s bank account.
Additionally, the audit identified 40 unauthorized cash withdraws by Hendrix from the Authority’s bank account totaling $419, and 14 manual cash receipts totaling $3,307 issued by Hendrix, where only $1,790 in cash was deposited, resulting in $1,517 collected, but not accounted for
Within the time period reviewed, Ms. Hendrix deposited seven personal checks totaling $1,272 into the Authority’s bank account related to the receipts collected and not previously deposited.
The Audit concludes that, “In accordance with the foregoing facts and pursuant to Ohio Rev. Code § 117.28, a Finding for Recovery for public property which has been converted or misappropriated is hereby issued against Ms. Hendrix in the amount of $11,780, and in favor of the Authority.”
According to local obituaries. Ms. Hendrix died in April 2019.
A full copy of this Ohio Auditor’s audit report is available online.
