Last Updated on January 10, 2023, 9:39 AM | Published: January 9, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — Because of an error in a payment to the IRS by the Oklahoma County Clerk’s office, checks to Oklahoma County Jail staff could have started bouncing this week.
But, after action in an emergency meeting of the Board of County Commissioners Monday morning, there will be enough money in an account to cover all of the checks.
What happened?
An error in the County Clerk’s office resulted in a large overpayment being sent to the IRS out of the Criminal Justice account, the same one used to pay employees of the Jail Trust.
- An overpayment from that account to the IRS of $638,772 was made in error.
- A request for a refund from the IRS is being made but will take around a week to correct.
- The closing ledger for that account Friday was $123,078.
- Total claims from paychecks on that account are $438,481.
The overpayment meant that unless the account was covered quickly, there would not be enough money in the account to cover all of the checks sent to staff last week.
Solution
Commissioners voted to cover the account with general funds until the IRS returns the funds sent in error.
According to BoCC Chair Brian Maughan, once the funds are returned from the IRS then the general fund will be reimbursed.
Maughan told Free Press that he believed the error was human error and “probably a failure with the check and balance points on a couple of spots.”
“The important thing is that we caught it and I think it’s all remedied in time,” said Maughan.
Background
The Oklahoma County Clerk position has been open with the first deputy in charge since David Hooten resigned under a cloud of accusations about sexual harassment in June 2022.
The governor has set the Special Primary Election for Tuesday, February 14, 2023; and the Special General Election will be held Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
