Only On 9: Officials Speak Out After Report Commissioned By Okla. Co. Jail Trust Released

A scathing report was released on the finances of the Oklahoma County jail, but the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office said the report is not as bad as it appears.

The jail trust is supposed trust to take over day-to-day operations of the jail. Though, they’re still not sure exactly when. The members paid $10,000 for a study into the jail’s finances. 

According to the report, “Whether deliberately designed…or with reckless disregard for accounting and accounting system propriety, the system could be easily manipulated however users may choose…" and that, “Circumstances are such that it would be surprising to us if the Jail could withstand a thorough financial audit…”

“I’m extremely upset,” said Oklahoma County Jail Trust Board Member Ben Brown. “This is a damning report on what has been and we have to have more information to be able to adequately budget and manage jail operations.”

Oklahoma County Commissioner Kevin Calvey said, “Well it certainly suggests that there’s a lack of accountability in some of the spending that the sheriffs office has done in the jail.”

The report's co-author, Evan Shough, a professor of accounting at the University of Central Oklahoma, said the problem is more with the accounting systems than with the sheriff’s department.

“We found everybody to be cooperative in providing us the best information that they could provide us,” Shough said. “It just seems the information system was not necessarily as useful as it could have been.”

Oklahoma County sheriff's office spokesman Mark Myers said, “When we speak with the folks who actually crafted the report, they say that looking at it from the general public, it may seem that way, but the intent there was absolutely no impropriety, there was no malfeasance within the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office.”

Calvey said he wants the state to investigate.

“We’re audited every year by the state auditor inspector. This agency has never had anything to hide. We are a very public agency,” Myers said. “If that is what he wants to do, call for it.”

News 9 has attached the full report.