Editorial blog: Trust but verify — well, don’t even trust

An audit of Sedgwick County’s internal financial policies and procedures makes clear that one phone call could have prevented a $566,088.90 mistake last October.

That’s the amount the county finance department made in an electronic payment to a Georgia scammer who doctored an automated payment form and voided check to make it look like the county was paying Cornejo & Sons for a road-improvement project.

A phone call to Cornejo & Sons would have alerted the county that something was amiss, according to auditor BKD LLC.

“It is highly likely that had this control been in place, this particular fraud would have been discovered before it could be perpetuated,” the audit said.

Anyone with an e-mail address has been the subject of phishing attempts, but that’s nickel-and-dime stuff compared to what the county pays out daily. It’s encouraging to hear county leaders say this week that payments are now verified through two vendor sources.

It’s hard to fathom the county would make a six-figure mistake a second time.

This story was originally published July 13, 2017 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Editorial blog: Trust but verify — well, don’t even trust."