The Tennessee Comptroller’s office recently released an audit that shows several incidents of financial mismanagement by elected officials in Rhea County in the fiscal year 2018. Those incidents include a new car for County Executive George Thacker, Christmas parties and gifts for employees.

The audit goes on to say officials did a lousy job of keeping track of transactions.

Some of the mismanagement includes:

• $700 spent for catering a Christmas party for county employees.
• more than $3,500 on a county credit card Christmas-party gifts at Lowe’s – gifts that according to the audit, “appeared to only benefit county employees, and not the citizens they serve.”
• $56,500 spent on a patching machine for county roads – without seeking alternative bids
• Two Rhea County employees shared a single user name and password on county software.
• Rhea County Sheriff Mike Neal failed to deposit funds for the office bank account within the required three days of collection.

Read the entire report here.