Franklin County expands software safety net to protect its finances

Franklin County continues to adapt its financial management systems to prevent a repeat of the 2012 scandal involving a public works administrator who embezzled more than $2.8 million over a 22-year timespan.

Franklin County commissioners voted Wednesday to pay up to $115,000 for the WinCAMS cost accounting and project software system for its public works department.

The software is made by Cascade Software Systems of Eugene, Ore. It will complement a $1.1 million ONESolution anti-theft financial management system that began powering the county’s accounts payable and reporting systems this month.

The ONESolution adoption is going smoothly, said Matt Beaton, Franklin County auditor. The county ran it parallel to the existing system for several weeks. The first batch of checks for vendors went through smoothly on Wednesday, he said.

Jeff Burckhard, chief deputy auditor, said payroll and human services will convert to ONESolution this summer. Testing will begin within a few months.

“That’s big, because we pay a lot of employees with a lot of deductions and things that need to be tested,” he said.

Franklin County Administrator Keith Johnson said adding the WinCAMS system to the public works department software stems indirectly from the fallout from the Dennis Huston embezzlement scandal.

Franklin County fired Huston, the public works administration and finance director, in February 2012 after auditors determined he had embezzled county money by issuing phony invoices and sending checks to himself.

Huston pleaded guilty, citing gambling and cocaine addictions. Now in his late 60s, he is serving a 16-year prison sentence at the Coyote Ridge Correctional Institute in Connell.

The episode is regarded as one of the worst examples of government fraud in Washington history and prompted Franklin County to beef up its financial management systems.

Just a month after the Huston case surfaced, Franklin County agreed to buy ONESolution from SunGard, a division of FIS financial systems. It replaces a decades-old system that allowed a single person to control both invoices and payments.

ONESolution offers a comprehensive countywide review of finances and builds checks and balances into the county’s system for paying contractors and vendors, Johnson said. The auditor’s office reviews all invoices, matching them to physical addresses and actual work performed.

“We have much more modernized, robust accounting and management tools. A lot of things are in place to keep (embezzlement) from happening again,” Johnson said.

Johnson is a certified public accountant and licensed attorney who became the county’s administrator in September. He formerly led state and local government outreach for Oracle, the California software giant.

The WinCAMS management system approved Wednesday will enhance the safeguards of ONESolutions by providing the public works department with the ability to track project-level finances. That should improve overall efficiency and help it comply with state and federal reporting requirements.

For instance, the county is regularly required to provide project-level payroll expenses as a condition of receiving outside funding.

That information can be uploaded into ONESolutions to give managers a clearer picture of where the public’s money is being spent.

Grant County is also implementing WinCAMS. Franklin County is piggybacking its deal with its neighbor through an intercounty contract-sharing agreement.

The system matches employee payroll with the type of work performed. It does not include check writing capabilities. It will be applied to county road, motor vehicle and solid waste activities.

Commissioners Brad Peck and Bob Koch approved the purchase. Chairman Rick Miller was traveling on county business.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 6:40 PM with the headline "Franklin County expands software safety net to protect its finances."