Missing Town of Apache funds investigated

APACHE — Missing public funds are being investigated by the Apache Police Department and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI).

Apache Police Chief Brynn Barnett issued a press release Tuesday morning of the investigation.

The missing funds were discovered during a routine internal audit for the Town of Apache. Elected and appointed Apache town officials notified the police department of the discrepancy who, in turn, requested the OSBI’s assistance, Barnett stated.

“At this time, a joint criminal investigation has been initiated and is currently ongoing to ensure that all public funds are continuously being properly accounted for at all times,” Barnett stated.

The amount of missing funds has not been released.

Mayor Dakota Woods issued a statement regarding the July 27 discovery of unaccounted funds.

“Town Clerk Gena Montgomery immediately informed the Apache Police Department and myself of the missing funds and the Apache Police requested assistance from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) in order to conduct the most thorough investigation possible into the matter,” he stated.

Unidentified Town of Apache employees under investigation were put on administrative leave on Aug. 1. A special meeting of the Town of Apache Trustees on Aug. 3 led to an executive session discussion, Woods stated. In open session, a motion was passed to take the employees under investigation off of administrative leave and return them to work until more information could be obtained from police and OSBI agents.

The regularly scheduled Aug. 7 meeting of the town board again went into executive session to discuss the investigation. Upon return to open session, Woods stated he made a motion which passed unanimously to terminate the employment of those being investigated, with the option of reinstatement if cleared through the investigation process.

“One of my goals as mayor is transparency,” he stated. “The Town of Apache has had several disorderly years in the past regarding unaccounted funds, so when this recent incident came to light, we immediately requested the assistance of OSBI and implemented even stricter daily auditing procedures.”

“When it comes to public funds, we cannot act lightly,” he continued.

Woods stated in previous years, employees were not held accountable to the level required by law for these types of instances.

This latest discovery follows a March 2023 audit requested and completed by Kimberly Furrh of Furrh and Associates that detailed pervasive fraud and mismanagement found in an audit of Apache government for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

During a public meeting, Furrh said that she and her team of CPAs found evidence of fraud in all levels of Apache government. The report given by Furrh and Associates listed 25 individual instances of fraud and mismanagement of funds. Missing and deleted documents caused for unreliable data for how the money was spent, she said during the meeting.

One instance of possible fraud was the payment of $207,000 to the Apache Ambulance Service. The service lost its non-profit status for failure to submit accurate tax reports for five years in a row. Under state law, any for-profit organization that receives more than $50,000 must have a contractual agreement with the town or city. The Apache Ambulance Service had no such contract.

In addition, the Apache Ambulance Service did not keep records of how it allocated the $207,000 from Apache taxpayers.

Kirk’s Ambulance has since taken over operations of the town’s ambulance service.

There were also instances of overpayment in employee payroll and discrepancies in utility payments of customer payments that included late fee charges and, for some residents, not being billed for services or adjustments at all.

Woods stated the duty of public servants is to safeguard the citizens and their tax dollars by all means necessary.

“As we move forward with this investigation, we hope Apache citizens remain patient as we await the findings of OSBI,” he stated.