‘Ghost’ auditor still haunts Kennett

Old financial questions still remain unanswered in the township, prolonging the debate

 By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com

KENNETT—It started months ago with the release of the township’s 2009-2010 audit. It escalated when questions were raised concerning the authenticity of the audit. Finally, it grew into a wildfire when—after months of petitioning and citizen inquiries to the township—those questions remained unanswered.

To this day, that fire continues to rage in the hearts and minds of Kennett Township’s citizenry, who still accost the township’s Board of Supervisors and Manager for concrete answers.

Township Manager Lisa Moore stated that she has been pursing contacts within the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to find a solution, but after repeated questioning from the residents in attendance at Monday night’s BOS meeting, Chairman Michael Elling offered a solution: residents should follow up on the matter themselves.

“That’s ridiculous, this is a township matter,” Kennett Township resident Bill Hewton said, “This is three months old now, this whole situation…have you tried our representatives to see if they can intercede for us or find someone to call us back?”

“I don’t see that there’s any pressing, urgent need to resolve it,” Elling responded. “It’s a dangling issue—which always bothers me—but there’s no consequence for waiting another month or two that I can see.”

But the crowd—many of whom are still aggravated over the township’s inability to accommodate them—disagreed with the Chairman. After a brief eruption from the audience, Lisa Moore agreed to contact Representative Chris Ross

Then, a new revelation.

Hewton, continuing his questioning, asked if the alleged auditor was registered in Pennsylvania, as required by state law.

“It doesn’t seem he was,” Moore responded.

The meeting room broke into a veritable Greek Choir, with more residents offering opinions and suggested courses of action on how to resolve this long-standing issue.

“Obviously this guy is mysterious, the auditor,” resident Joe Duffy said. “That casts a large shadow on the audit done by him…my feeling is that there’s no audit, so we need an audit. Whether the state is ever moved to respond or not the people should have a legitimate audit.”

More residents chimed in, continuing the drive for tangible solutions.

“Lisa would you agree, since there seems to be a lot of confusion on this issue, to turn over all of your files and information on the auditor?” resident Bill McLaughlin asked. “Let me give you an example: you did mention that on the 1099 for the 2010 audit is still on your desk? Can we see the 1099s? How about the auditor’s introduction letter or the summary of his services?”

Still, as the controversy continues to embroil the township, some feel that the issue is a wild goose chase.

“Why do we want to spend all this money to go back and rehash things when we don’t have any indication that things are wrong,” resident and CPA Tom Corcoran asked. “I know what’s normally done under these situations, it seems that the township did things at arm’s length and thought they did have a qualified auditor doing the job.”

But the few that stood for the township could not silence the overwhelming voice of the critics.

“We as a township engaged in a contract with this person and we contracted them to perform a specific duty,” resident Margot Taylor said. “The compliance and the follow-through of that contract is what concerns me the most; when you engage somebody for their services…when the person doesn’t have a real P.O. Box, doesn’t have a real name, isn’t registered in either state, you start going ‘whoa, what’s this person about?’”

Despite the strong cry for a resolution, the situation shows no signs of deescalating. Kennett Township residents are determined to remain vigilant in pursuing the matter to the point of adequate closure, while newly elected Supervisor Scudder Stevens has vowed to work closely with the his peers to resolve the issue at hand.

For more information on the history of the audit, visit: https://kennetttimes.com/?p=1479