Orem theft probe may take weeks

OREM — Orem officials say their investigation into an alleged $50,000 embezzlement from the Orem Fitness Center could take weeks to complete.

City manager Jim Reams said a former Orem city employee — whom he would not identify — confessed the theft to a supervisor Nov. 28. The worker resigned the next day.

The city launched an investigation and reported the matter to the Orem police. A police spokesman referred all questions to Reams.

The city's fraud insurance will cover any losses caused by the alleged scheme to take money from city coffers.

"It's still an ongoing criminal investigation right now, so we have to be somewhat cautious in what we say," Reams said.

Reams said the alleged embezzlement came to light after a mid-November review.

"We were initially over there doing our routine investigation of cash-handling procedures, how they took in their money, how they deposit it, things like that," Reams

said. "A few days after that, the employee came forward to his supervisor and confessed to taking the money."

Reams said the city did not suspect any wrongdoing when the review was conducted.

Since then, however, city officials have taken several steps to prevent future problems.

"No. 1, we immediately reviewed the cash-handling processes over there, found out some precautions that should have been in place were not being followed, and we re-implemented those," Reams said.

The city also checked the cash-handling procedures of other city agencies — such as the library and utility-billing agency — to ensure similar problems were not occurring there.

An audit committee will be established to select an outside auditor who will review the city's cash-handling processes and make reports and recommendations quarterly.

A separate firm will continue conducting the city's internal audits, which the independent auditor will also review, he said.

Reams expects the probe to continue for several weeks because of the number of documents involved.

Reams said city employees are shaken by the fraud.

"It's been a real emotional issue for us," he said. "We take great pride in our organization, and to think that this happened is very disappointing to us, sobering."

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E-mail: mdecker@desnews.com