BATON ROUGE — Thousands of dollars' worth of equipment is still missing from BREC facilities, a report by the Legislative Auditor's Office released Monday said. 

The audit of the fiscal year ending in December 2023 says that mowers, edgers, trimmers, gas and bolt cutters, totalling $12,191, were taken from Greenwood Community Park. Additionally, a lawnmower valued at $16,298 was taken from the Dumas Memorial Golf Course. 

The audit also says that $1,449 was misappropriated from the administrative office as a result of a phishing scam, but these funds were recovered as of the date of the auditor's report. 

The equipment is still missing, the report notes.

"We recommend BREC continue its prosecution and\or pursuit of these matters and that the internal controls be reviewed and potentially revised to deter such instances from occurring in the future," an independent auditor said.

According to the audit, BREC is working with law enforcement to recover the nearly $30,000 in equipment that was stolen.

The audit also reported that BREC failed to reconcile bank accounts to the general ledger and payroll benefit liabilities, park deposits, grants receivable and inventory accounts to supporting documents in a timely manner.

"In addition, BREC failed to file its audit with the Legislative Auditor’s office within the required timeframe, lacked appropriate procedures and controls to ensure capital project costs were accurately reported, and failed to publish the required notice for its 2023 proposed budget at least 10 days before the budget hearing," the audit continued.

The independent auditor also said that BREC may have failed to comply with Public Bid Law, as well as failing to amend the budget for its Special Revenue Enhancement Fund when actual expenditures were projected to exceed budgeted expenditures by more than 5%. 

In 2021, an audit said that $7,600 worth of lawn equipment was stolen. Another audit from 2024 revealed thefts valued at more than $70,000. Auditors also dinged BREC for a second year for failing to keep accurate records of its gift cards.

In the Monday audit, the auditor also made recommendations related to Interfund Accounts, gift card reconciliations, cash deposits, capital construction costs, budget oversight, theft of public assets and the ad valorem tax allowance.