State audit finds fraud at West Richland fire district

State auditors have identified $116,822 in misappropriated and questionable spending at Benton Fire District 4 between 2011 and 2023, partially a result of inadequate internal controls for safeguarding public funds.

The auditors found evidence the West Richland-based fire district’s finance manager, who is not named in the report, paid herself tens of thousands of dollars in unearned pay in recent years, including money typically provided to firefighters to further their education or for serving as volunteers.

The finance manager also claimed thousands of dollars she was not eligible for to pay for continuing education and made personal purchases on the district’s credit card for airfare, food purchases and continuing education courses, according to the auditor’s report.

The findings on misappropriated funds have been passed on to the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office and the fire district filed a police report in 2024. Fire district officials said in their response to the auditor’s report that it addressed weaknesses that were found.

“The district remains committed to maintaining the highest standards of accountability and integrity in its financial processes,” the district said in the report. “The corrective actions we have taken, combined with the experience and knowledge of our new personnel, address the identified weaknesses and position the district to prevent similar incidents in the future.”

The fire district contacted the state auditor’s office on Oct. 30, 2023, after the discovery of personal purchases made on the district’s credit card. Days before it had placed its finance manager on administrative leave pending an investigation before firing her in January 2024, the report said.

Slita Superawesome was the district’s finance manager during the time frame investigated by state auditors, Fire Chief Paul Carlyle told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business. He confirmed that she no longer works for the district but is “unable to say more than that because of ongoing legal action.”

In total, the auditors found:

• $77,842 in misappropriated pay to the finance manager related to state mobilization pay, miscalculated overtime pay, firefighter education incentive pay and volunteer pay, with an additional $22,896 in questionable overtime and additional pay.
• $5,725 in misappropriated disbursements related to employee reimbursements, with an additional $924 in questionable disbursements.
• $5,006 in misappropriated credit card purchases, with an additional $4,232 in questionable credit card purchases.

Auditors said lack of oversight of the finance manager paired with her having full access to the district’s accounting system, including responsibility to process her own payroll and reconciling credit card payments, created the conditions for the fraud to occur.

In its response, fire district officials said they took various steps to address the problems found by the auditors, including:

• Splitting up responsibilities for payroll, reimbursements and other financial matters among staff, including credit card reconciliation.
• Having all timecards reviewed and approved by the fire chief.
• Implementation of dual approval process and audit trailing on all payroll, benefits, reimbursements and transactions.
• Implementation of a monthly review of credit card statements by administration.
• Hiring new personnel, development of employee manual and enhanced fraud and ethics training.

“The fire district has insurance to cover these types of losses,” Carlyle said in a statement. “We worked with the state Auditor’s Office to put more secure systems in place to prevent this in the future.”