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North Miami Finance Manager Resigns After IRS Launches Probe

The City of North Miami

The Internal Revenue Service will be taking a closer look at the City of North Miami’s books this month.

In a letter sent to the city on Sept. 2, the IRS is specifically asking to review employee payroll records and information about eight city vendors from 2012.

Three days after the IRS announced its review, the North Miami finance manager who would have helped coordinate the Service's request resigned.

Camelia Siguineau in her brief resignation letter wrote, “Due to unforeseen family obligations, I am unable to continue my employment with the city.”

Siguineau was not the finance director in 2012, the year the IRS inquiry is focusing on.

City spokeswoman Pam Solomon says Siguineau’s resignation was effective immediately.

City Manager Aleem Ghany says his primary concern is making sure the city supplies the IRS with all of the information it needs.

He says Siguineau’s departure will not affect the city’s ability to meet its Sept. 18 deadline with the IRS.

“My finance department has been given a directive to make sure all the pertinent information is gathered for this examination and we are providing complete transparency and accountability to the IRS examiner,” he says.

The IRS is asking for the city to turn over fringe benefits, copies of manuals and procedures and retirement plan documents and all correspondences between the agency and the city about payroll and payroll taxes.

Ghany says the review could lead to a full-scale audit, which may lead to fines against North Miami if the city is found not to be in compliance with IRS rules.

“This examination is actually to ensure the city is compliant with all tax laws,” says Ghany, who adds the city was picked at random.

However, some North Miami officials point to a pattern of the city lacking the proper controls in its handling of financial matters, including basic bookkeeping.

The finance department has had two different directors in the past  two years.

Vernon Paul, the previous finance manager, resigned in June 2013, but then abruptly returned to the job with no explanation.

He then resigned again five months later, this time for good. In his resignation letter he wrote, “I had a fiduciary duty to implement a stable financial position for the city. However, at this time, I feel that the environment does not support my standards.”

Under Paul’s tenure, the department struggled with managing a new billing system, which delayed customer’s utility bills for months. The finance department also had to hire outside contractors to help reconcile its books.

“We weren’t keeping track of our finances for some time,” says North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin. “We’ve got a financial audit that is pending because of other irregularities between issues with our water bill and a list of other things that have been funky.”

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