The Johnston County Sheriff’s Office bought $262,000 value of autos and gasoline masks with out acquiring the required written quotes, a violation of the county’s coverage, in accordance with the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor.

The objects totaled $262,009 and included seven vehicles (totaling $250,049) and 40 gasoline masks (totaling $11,960), in accordance with a doc launched by the state auditor. The most costly car was a 2019 Chevrolet Tahoe bought for $48,200.

To decide objects are purchased at a good worth, the Johnston County Purchasing Policy requires that at the very least three written quotes be obtained for any buy over $7,500.

The doc indicated that the sheriff’s workplace probably overpaid for the objects by not acquiring the required quotes.

Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell responded, saying he violated coverage as a result of he thought-about the purchases to be emergency purchases. He additionally stated he needed to buy the objects regionally and researched the costs of the objects earlier than shopping for them.

According to the report, Bizzell didn’t have documentation of his analysis for the auditor’s workplace and stated he didn’t maintain any documentation as a result of “if I can’t be trusted as the sheriff, who can you trust?”

The objects had been bought between January 2019 and April 2020, in accordance with the report. Bizzell stated he thought-about the autos emergency purchases due to a deadline.

According to the auditor’s report, “the deadline had passed to order the three 2020 Chevrolet Tahoes directly from the factory when the sheriff’s office decided to buy them … and a local dealership had to locate the vehicles on other dealer lots in order to fill the sheriff’s office’s order. According to the sheriff, he considered it an emergency, because it was ‘impossible to order these vehicles.'”

The gasoline masks had been bought in January 2019 throughout a interval of “rioting and civil unrest,” Bizzell stated when explaining why these had been thought-about an emergency.

Johnston County Attorney Jennifer Slusser and the sheriff’s workplace each responded to the auditor’s report.

Slusser acknowledged the findings and stated she believes Bizzell was performing in “good faith seeking to save taxpayer money while obtaining vehicles and equipment necessary to serve the citizens of Johnston County.”

Still, Slusser stated the county will ensure suggestions and pointers supplied by the state auditor are met, together with:

• Enforcing the buying coverage to make sure aggressive costs are obtained for all purchases higher than $7,500.
• Obtaining at the very least three written quotes for all purchases higher than $7,500.
• Notifying the finance director by way of e-mail when an emergency buy is being made that exempts the acquisition from requiring quotes.
• Ensuring that each one purchases which might be deemed emergency purchases meet the definition of emergency purchases as outlined within the buying coverage.