By TERRYL ASLA
tasla@soundpublishing.com

KINGSTON — State auditors identified $767 in lost receipts, 12 deletions of port transactions, and the theft of $79 in its review of Port of Kingston finances from December 2014 to Aug. 11, 2015.

At a June 2 special meeting with the Port of Kingston Commission, Washington state auditors reported their findings regarding the port’s 2013-2014 financial reports.

The port had reported $787 unexplained losses from drop box receipts in 2014; the revenue reported as received in the drop box log was less than that recorded as deposited.

State auditors identified $767 in lost receipts and 12 deletions of port transactions. Only the loss of one receipt for $79 could be attributed to a specific individual.

There was no point in going back earlier in its research from a cost benefit analysis, auditors explained.

When a record was deleted from the port’s accounting software, the entire record was deleted, they said. Because employees did not have to log in with personal identification codes, there was no way to tell who had made the deletions.

When pressed to say if there could have been more thefts than the $767 they were able to identify, the auditors said that amount might very well “only be the tip of the iceberg.”

Unfortunately, there was no way of telling how much and by whom as the records of the 12 deletions had been completely erased. Nor did auditors go back past Aug. 11 to see if there were more deletions.

— An expanded story is being developed. Watch for it here.