OCEAN PINES – Officials kicked off February’s Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors by providing an update on a theft investigation currently underway.
Doug Parks, president of the board, said he knew there was “a lot on everybody’s mind” and that he wanted to address that during Sunday’s meeting. He provided residents with a timeline of the events surrounding the investigation being handled by the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation (WCBI).
“The point here is I get from some of the correspondence that we’ve been sitting on our hands and doing nothing,” Parks said. “That’s about as far from the truth as you can get.”
According to Parks, “questionable financial” concerns date back to May of 2017.
“This is where we started to look at that things that started to have us ask questions, make some inquiries,” he said.
In July of 2017, Parks said officials determined $2,500 in petty cash was missing. The individual identified as responsible was then terminated.
“We had the Ocean Pines Police interrogate them,” Parks said. “At the same time we looked at the requirements and what it would cost for legal fees to prosecute. It was decided at that point in time it would cost us far more to prosecute than we could ever recover. We made a conscious decision not to move forward, not to prosecute, at that time.”
At that point, Parks said officials decided a “deep dive audit” was needed and SC&H Group performed it. The resulting recommendations were implemented.
“In August there was an allegation that more money was missing,” Parks said. “To this day we don’t know how much was involved.”
Parks said the association had TGM Group come in to make sure the recommendations from the recent audit were appropriate. At the same time, the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation was contacted.
“We decided that it was prudent to contact the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation and report this particular condition,” Parks said. “That’s when the process started.”
In September, Parks said WCBI requested payroll and personnel records for various employees. Parks said that information was provided.
Since then, Parks said he’d called the detective handling the investigation himself but had gotten little information.
“I don’t think any of us can control the speed in which that investigation is being done,” Parks said. “I wish I had a better answer. I think anybody is free to call the Worcester County Bureau of Investigation on behalf of the membership and say we’re very concerned with the progress and can we get an update. That’s kind of where we are. We have been, on a regular basis continuing to query them. He said we’re getting close but I think it’s more of a manufactured answer.”
Lt. Ed Schreier of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this week that WCBI was investigating a complaint.
“It is not prudent to discuss investigations,” he said in an email. “CBI has been in constant contact with the Ocean Pines board and has kept them informed on every step.”
He said the nature of an investigation was to determine if a crime had been committed and who committed it.
“Investigations must be done in an efficient and thorough manner and should not contain time constraints,” Schreier said.
