Several nonprofit, county, and state agencies are waiting to recoup a total of $125,000 in funds missing from the now-defunct Youth Assistance Program of Cleveland County.

A review by the N.C. State Auditor’s Office in 2004, and a followup year-end report in December 2005 blames former Executive Director Pam Greene for the shortfall.

“A finding equals a problem,” said Dennis Patterson, spokesman for the Office of the State Auditor. “Anytime you have a finding, it’s never a good situation, and, (YAP of Cleveland County) had many findings.”

In January, a Cleveland County grand jury charged Greene with 10 counts of embezzlement. Assistant District Attorney Katherine Sawyer is handling the prosecution, but she refused to comment because the case is still pending.

However, the Shelby Star newspaper reported that Greene said she did not commit any crimes. “I will say I’m innocent,” Greene told the newspaper. “But on the advice of my attorney, I cannot comment further at this time.”

The report, originally released by State Auditor Ralph Campbell Jr. in November 2004, said many allegations and complaints of mismanaged funds for the youth program, situated at the time in Shelby, were received on the State Auditor’s Hotline.

Not only was a significant amount of money missing from YAP through undocumented cashed checks, falsified mileage reports, and duplicate expense receipts to the Governor’s Crime Commission for reimbursement, other discrepancies were found as well.

The investigation of the program’s records from Jan. 1, 2001 to June 4, 2004 also found that Greene reported inflated results to the Governor’s One-on-One Volunteer Program and used the funding for positions that did not exist.

Greene also contracted with family members who did not meet the educational requirements as described in a grant given by the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention-Juvenile Crime Prevention Council.

The audit also showed that Greene paid her daughter, Tristan Reynolds, for parenting classes she did not facilitate through funds given by the Cleveland County Department of Social Services.

Greene also paid her family members’ personal expenses with United Way Basic Needs Grant Funds.

United Way of Cleveland County Director Tom Hassell said he hopes to get back some of thousands of dollars United Way gave to YAP. “Our posture has been one of watchful waiting,” he said. “We are still waiting for the official announcement. Hopefully, at some point there will be an opportunity for organizations to recover funds.”

Renee Hoffman, director of Public Affairs for the Governor’s Crime Commission, said her organization sent a letter of intent in March 2005 stating commission members want repayment for funds sent to YAP.

Cleveland County Manager David Dear said the local government might be responsible for paying restitution for this “very unfortunate incident,” but county officials are waiting for the matter to work its way through the court system.

The state auditor’s document also found some of the funding organizations at fault. The report found that officials of the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Governor’s One-on-One Volunteer Program failed to monitor the youth program because, if they had, the shortfalls might have been detected at an earlier date, or prevented from ever happening.

“The last time YAP underwent a monitoring review was in 1999 and the report has since been archived or destroyed,” the report said. “The Acting State Director said it was an error on their behalf that YAP had not been monitored since 1999.”

“There needs to be checks and balances,” Dear said. “We’ve already started doing trainings for board of directors, to improve each board’s oversight for non-profits.”

In the end, Hassell said, the young people are the real losers in the scandal.
“(YAP) was doing good things,” he said. “It’s fair to say that not having their organizational presence in the community is a loss.”