Orange County Supervisors are about to choose who will review over five years of their receipts to look for any misspent funds after a former county supervisor pleaded guilty to rerouting over $10 million in exchange for bribes.
Next week could be the first time supervisors discuss bringing in an outside auditor to look at the problem after they promised to last December, when they acknowledged they needed a comprehensive review to figure out if there was any other illegal spending they missed.
[Read: OC Supervisors Approve Outside Audit After Bribery Scandal]
So far, the county’s own internal reviews have focused on spending by former Supervisor Andrew Do, who just began his five-year stint in prison for illegally redirecting county funds to nonprofits in exchange for bribes.
[Read: Former OC Supervisor Sentenced to 5 Years in Federal Prison in Bribery Scheme]
Over the past year, county supervisors have repeatedly argued they’re taking their time with their audit because they have a lot more material to review – over five years of contracts connected to pandemic relief funds, the Mental Health Services Act and the county general fund.
County staff have narrowed it down to three auditing firms, the cheapest of which is asking for nearly half a million dollars to go through the records. All the other offers are over $1.3 million.
While Do left office over a year ago, there haven’t been many outside looks into his past work in the county, where he served as a county supervisor for nearly eight years and before that on the Garden Grove City Council.
CalOptima, the county’s health plan for the poor, recently gave their board members a completed investigation into Do’s work at the agency but have yet to announce if or when it will be released to the public.
[Read: Will CalOptima Release Probe of Convicted Orange County Supervisor Today?]
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
