The City of Richmond isn’t the only entity to suffer waste and abuse (although it may hold the state record). Virginia’s Birth-related Neurological Injury Compensation Program also has accounting problems. A state audit finds that the program has weak internal controls. (That’s a fancy way to say lousy bookkeeping.) It also has overpaid on contracts, to the detriment of Virginia taxpayers.

Mismanagement was the key to Goochland County’s utilities department’s failures, a forensic audit has found. That was the bottom line of a probe into the nearly $200,000 worth of checks found undeposited since 2003. No criminal wrongdoing was discovered in the $50,000 audit. The department director and another employee were fired late last year as the checks were discovered, and 23-year County Administrator Gregory K. Wolfrey resigned in February, months ahead of his announced retirement date.

A $50,000 probe into Goochland County’s public utilities department in the wake of problems is not expected to result in criminal charges, the county administrator said. “We’ve been advised that there are no criminal findings coming out of the forensics audit,“ said Becky Dickson, who took the county’s reins July 20. She succeeded 23-year County Administrator Gregory K. Wolfrey, who resigned months ahead of schedule in April as elected leaders and the public called for answers to the utilities’ department mismanagement issues.

Here’s a headline we’d dearly love to see: “Auditor Praises City Operations; ‘Absolutely Flawless,‘ Review Concludes.“ Unfortunately, ongoing scrutiny of Richmond governance continues to find much in need of redress. The latest audit, of the school system’s human resources and payroll operations, has produced dismaying but far-from-surprising results: overpayments, poor bookkeeping, goldbricking, and so on.

Audit: Richmond Schools can’t account for 42 percent of computer equipment Forty-two percent of computer equipment identified in Richmond school records cannot be accounted for, according to an audit released yesterday by the city auditor’s office. The operational audit of the Richmond Public Schools’ department of information technology said 13,455 pieces of equipment identified through the district’s fixed-asset system could be missing or not correctly documented.

Richmond school system employees used poor judgment in handling a procurement request but did not “willingly and knowingly violate” the Virginia Public Procurement Act, the district’s internal auditor concluded in a review of a contract for work on an elementary school. The report, released yesterday, includes eight findings of wrongdoing, five recommendations for improving procurement and purchasing practices and one other item for possible action.