PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- State audits of an eastern Kentucky county question nearly a million dollars worth of emergency management projects that have little or no documentation for their expenditures.

Leslie County failed to keep track of how it spent $947,000 in grant money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for fiscal years 2004 and 2005, according to two reports released by state Auditor Crit Luallen. The money covered 71 projects, most of them for flood repairs.

“These audits raise serious concerns regarding the county’s financial management,” Luallen said in a statement.

The audits also revealed that Leslie County employees used the judge-executive’s county credit card while he was away on active military duty.

The 2004 audit found that employees spent $15,144 with Judge-Executive Kenneth Witt’s county credit card while he was on active duty. The report questioned nearly half of the spending due to a lack of proper documentation.

Other findings in the two audits included:

Personnel files inadequately maintained.

The Fiscal Court didn’t approve county employee pay rates.

The county failed to collect franchise fees from ambulance companies.

Some county employees, including the judge-executive and the finance officer, used county vehicles and cell phones for personal business. For example, Witt’s Chevrolet Tahoe, enhanced with emergency lights and radio equipment, was purchased with a homeland security grant. Witt took off the emergency equipment and gave it to the sheriff.

The audits were referred to the attorney general’s office for further review.

The phone number listed for Witt, who did not seek re-election last year, was disconnected and he could not be reached for comment Friday.

The new judge-executive, Jimmy Sizemore, said he’s spent the first two weeks of his term cleaning up the bookkeeping issues.

“I think it’s all in the bookkeeping. I don’t think there’s really any money gone,” he said Friday. “Hopefully, this will never happen again.”

   ------

On the Net:

The audits on Leslie County can be viewed at www.auditor.ky.gov (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

APTV-01-12-07 1544EST