An employee of Rhode Island's financially struggling capital city found nearly 200 undeposited checks totaling more than $334,000 in a box apparently never unpacked as the result of money-saving staff cuts, a spokesman for the mayor said on Thursday.
The Providence city worker found the checks, ranging from $5 to $114,000 to pay for fire department reviews and permit fees, last week at the city's Department of Inspection and Standards, said David Oritz, press secretary for Mayor Angel Taveras.
"The office relocated several months ago, and apparently the box was never unpacked," he said.
The misplaced checks may have been a result of understaffing, Ortiz said, noting that the department's work force had been reduced by more than 15 percent in the past year.
Reducing the number of city employees is just one of several measures the city has implemented to cut costs and seek new revenue to eliminate a $110 million structural budget deficit it faced at the start of its last fiscal year in July. The city currently has a deficit of about $22 million and is on course to run out of cash by June, Ortiz said.
Other efforts to close the budget hole include raising taxes on property and car owners, and more strictly enforcing the city's parking ordinance, he said. On Saturday, the mayor met with about 475 city retirees to ask them to give up annual cost-of-living increases on their pensions to help Providence ward off bankruptcy.
Some of the 186 checks found last week ready for deposit into city coffers were written as long as a year ago, and as many as two dozen may have to be reissued, Ortiz said. The city will deposit the checks that are still valid, he said.
"We're doing a full internal review," he said. "We'll find out how this happened. Those who are responsible will be held accountable, and we will make sure this does not happen again."
