BROWNSTOWN, Ind. (AP) — The FBI and Indiana State Police are reviewing a southern Indiana town's records after an audit found that an employee had received paychecks totaling about $60,000 more than her annual salary.
Town records show clerk-treasurer Rebeckah "Becky" Fee, 54, was paid $102,894.54 through the Oct. 8 pay period. The town's 2009 salary ordinance states the clerk-treasurer should be paid about $1,565 bi-weekly, or just under $41,000 annually, The Tribune of Seymour reported.
Brownstown Town Council President Leroy Warren confirmed that state police and the FBI are investigating.
Fee, who did not return messages seeking comment, has not been at work since mid-October. She is still listed as clerk-treasurer, but town officials have named deputy clerk-treasurer Cathy Roberts to the job on an interim basis.
State law says elected office holders are responsible for seeing that the duties of the office are carried out. It does not specify that they must appear at work or perform any duties.
Records show Fee's last paycheck, dated Oct. 8, included her $1,564.98 gross pay plus an unexplained $3,500, The Tribune reported.
The investigation into the town's financial records began after the Indiana Board of Accounts started a routine two-year audit of town records in October. The agency audits various arms of local government on a two-year rotation.
Auditors contacted state police after finding irregularities.
Town Councilman Jim Phillips said that since the audit, the council has learned that it did not receive a detailed payroll report each month. Instead, he said, Fee provided a report that included the total payroll figure each month and that the amount was what it should have been.
"We weren't being told the truth about things," he said.
Fee was appointed to the job in 2000 and was unopposed in the 2003 election. She was re-elected in November 2007.
State News
FBI, state review Brownstown financial records
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