Lafayette Mayor-President Addressing Financial Issues from Previous Administration

Lafayette, LA (KPEL News) - The Louisiana Legislative Auditor reports that an independent firm has identified several issues within Lafayette Consolidated Government practices. A slew of those problems may sound familiar.

In her 100 Days report, current Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet noted that her team was tackling financial, procedural, and personnel issues brought to light by a 2021-22 audit completed under her predecessor Josh Guillory.

In May, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor released details of the 2022-23 audit, and 18 of the problems from the earlier audit had largely not been resolved.

AUDIT RAISES ALARMING QUESTIONS

The independent firm Kolder, Slaven & Company completed the audit for the 2022-2023 LCG fiscal year which ended October 31, 2023.

The items of greatest interest highlighted by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor include:

• A lack of adequate controls over fuel cards.
• A lack of policies and procedures to effectively review new and existing LUS Fiber contracts with internal departments.
• Improper use of grant funds held in a pooled cash account.
• Possible improper use of proceeds from two dedicated City of Lafayette sales taxes, including using dedicated City of Lafayette sales taxes to fund projects outside the city limits.
• Failure to comply with Louisiana Public Bid Law provisions related to the use of the construction manager at risk project deliver method and documentation requirements.
• Failure to ensure LUS Fiber customers were properly billed for services received.
  • A lack of of adequate policies and procedures governing the use of LUS Fiber customer equipment, the completion of work orders.
  • A lack of adequate controls over the government's fixed assets.
  • Four compliance issues related to LUS Fiber issues.
• A lack of documentation to support the use of dedicated drainage millage proceeds to fund a detention pond project.
• Using proceeds from two sales taxes to pay a settlement agreement on expropriated property outside the city limits.
• Two other finding are related to federal awards from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

With regards to LUS Fiber customer issues, the audit did not name the customers, nor did they specify whether those customers were receiving services free or at a reduced cost.

WHAT NOW?

Lafayette City-Parish Attorney Pat Ottinger told The Advocate that auditors reviewed nearly two dozen accounts of both employees and will review the information to determine if the discrepancies meet felony levels. Six of the eight people who received free service or more services than they paid for with LUS Fiber were employees or family members of the Guillory administration.

An anonymous caller into KPEL who claimed to be a former LUS Fiber employee says the current administration was made aware of the issue by whistleblowers who work or worked for LUS Fiber.

As the Louisiana Legislative Auditor noted, many of the issue found by the independent auditor were repeats of some discovered in the 2021-22 Lafayette Consolidated Government audit released in May of last year. Then-Mayor-President Josh Guillory insisted that LCG had operated within the law. He felt that the issues were a result of typographical errors and other fixable issues.

READ MORE: Lafayette Administration Pushes Back on 2023 Audit Findings

THE NEW LCG ADMINISTRATION

Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet addressed the financial issues outlined in the May 2023 audit in her recent 100 Days report, stating that her administration had reviewed the policies and procedures and found that some had circumvented management. As a result:

The Boulet administration took corrective measures to address some of these findings, and others are being developed for immediate implementation.

Mayor-President Boulet has said during interviews on Acadiana's Morning News on KPEL that she has been and will continue to be very intentional in putting the right leadership team in place and deciding which projects may need to be revisited and adjusted accordingly.