PANAMA CITY — Local officials continue to fine-tune the main points of an upcoming forensic audit to make sure the city’s operating and tax systems are manipulated through employees.
According to Mayor Greg Brudnicki, Panama City will soon begin accepting donations from corporations to conduct the audit, which was triggered by the Oct. 20 arrest of Michael Johnson, the city’s former director of network development.
Johnson accused of embezzling $470,000 from the Friends of After School Assistance Program, a nonprofit that supports the city’s after-school assistance program.
Read more about the audit: Panama City to go through forensic audit after arrest of former employee for embezzlement
Johnson Arrested: Former Panama City Manager Arrested for Embezzling $470,000 from Charity
Brudnicki noted Panama City is working to establish the scope of work for the audit and how far back it will go into the city’s records. He hopes for this to be complete by the next Panama City Commission meeting on Nov. 29. The city will then begin accepting bids, and officials plan to select a company during a meeting on Dec. 13.
“Nobody expected somebody to be a crook, (and) it triggered some things,” Brudnicki said. “We would never have thought anyone would do anything like he (allegedly) did. … We will formulate a plan to help try to make (city systems) more foolproof.”
Commissioners unanimously approved the audit last month following Johnson’s arrest.
Police reports imply that an account for the city’s after-school attendance program at Hancock Whitney Bank was discovered, which only had Johnson on his signature card. As program director since 2012, Johnson had exclusive access to his checkbook.
Hancock Whitney Bank’s statements show Johnson himself wrote checks. The first issued on February 1, 2012 for $9,839 and the largest issued on November 13, 2020 for over $37,215.
Johnson resigned as the network’s director of progression about two weeks before his arrest, when City Manager Mark McQueen confronted him with unrelated control practices.
These included a lack of policies, procedures, and documentation, as well as a failure to comply with federal regulations similar to Johnson’s local role with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Class Grant Program. The program provides federal investment to governments to expand housing for urban communities.
The Panama City Police Department and the FBI investigate all systems and budgets to which it had authority. Brudnicki said Wednesday afternoon that he had no update on the investigation.
“It’s very unfortunate that (we) have someone who (allegedly) did what he did,” Brudnicki said. what happened. “