COSTA MESA : Shredding of Checks by Water Staff to Cease
After an independent auditor revealed that nearly 100 checks had been shredded by the staff of the Mesa Consolidated Water District, agency officials said they will be more diligent about enforcing regulations.
The auditor, Leaf & Cole of San Diego, said that the check-shredding practice violated standards of government accounting and that by law it was required to bring the findings to the attention of the water district’s board of directors.
District General Manager Karl Kemp said that the district’s policy is to void, rather than shred, unused checks.
“It was a minor glitch, and there was no intent to do anything wrong,” he said. “But it was a mistake, and it will not happen again.”
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