The Union County Treasurer says his office has uncovered gross mismanagement of a county insurance program.
Darren Bailey says estimates show the decade-long mismanagement has cost taxpayers between 15 and 20-thousand dollars.
He says the majority of the problems centered around an unsanctioned program which continued to enroll former employees in the county's group dental insurance plan, Delta Dental, even after they no longer worked for the county. He says it appears some of the people didn't even know they still had the coverage.
"Is it sinister? No. I think people were trying to do a nice thing. But, you can't do nice things with the public's money, especially when you're not managing it, when you're not reporting it. So, the result was that some people weren't paying at all, some people were paying old amounts, and the General Fund, the taxpayers, were having to pick up the difference."
Bailey says when he brought this to the attention of workers who made the errors in the office of payroll and benefits, they didn't seem too concerned about it.
"$20,000 in a large budget, multi-million-dollar budget, like Union County's, isn't going to make or break. But, in a time like now, when people are coming in, digging deep into their couch cushions, or whatever, to pay their taxes, to be this irresponsible with the taxpayer's money is unacceptable. This is what's happening with your money. This is what's happening with the people that are supposed to be serving you. So, when you to go the voter's booth, you go to the ballot box, keep that in mind."
To monitor the situation, Bailey says the treasurer's office is now submitting for the payment of the Delta Dental bill each month.
