• Magistrates were late turning in cash deposits to the clerk’s office;

• Some staff members had inappropriate access to the clerk’s information system.

According to Durham County Clerk of Superior Court Archie Smith and Chief Magistrate Donald Paschall, both “deficiencies” have been corrected.

The report was issued Jan. 18 and covers the period from Nov. 1, 2011, through Oct. 31, 2012. According to the report, “no special circumstances” prompted the audit; the state auditor’s office periodically examines state agencies’ financial practices.

Magistrates turned in 878 receipts during the reporting period. Auditors found 206 instances, totaling $357,240, in which magistrates were two or more business days late turning money in to the clerk’s office. One deposit was 29 days late. There was no suggestion of money being unaccounted for.

The clerk’s office was advised to “strengthen controls over magistrates’ receipts.”

“It has been taken care of,” Paschall said. The problem, he said, was lack of a sheriff’s escort for the several blocks between the jail and the clerk’s office in the Judicial Building.

“We put ourselves in a dangerous situation if we carry that money up without an armed escort," he said, but, “There were some times we were unable to get armed security.”

Money had been kept in a safe at the jail until an escort was available, Paschall said. “It was completely safe, it just was not in the clerk’s office.”

After the report came out, he said, he conferred with Smith and with the sheriff’s department and arranged for a daily escort. Sheriff’s Office spokesman Paul Sherwin said escorted deposits are now made daily.

In the case of information access, auditors found that four of Smith’s staff members had access to both the financial management and criminal infractions records. The overlap violated a state policy of “segregating” duties to reduce risk of errors and fraud, including “inappropriate” waiving of criminal citations.

According to Smith, he has taken steps “to terminate incompatible access.”