Ala. (WBRC) – A new state audit released Friday found widespread financial control breakdowns inside the Greene County Commission, revealing the local governing body failed to produce annual financial statements for two consecutive years, ran road funds into the red, and awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in public contracts without competitive bidding
The compliance examination, released October 2 by the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts, covers October 2021 through September 2023. According to Chief Examiner Rachel Laurie Riddle, state auditors made multiple attempts to obtain year-end financial records, but the commission never prepared financial statements for fiscal years 2022 and 2023.
The complete absence of basic financial reporting forced the state to abandon a traditional financial statement audit in favor of a narrower legal compliance review. State examiners warned the failure could damage Greene County’s credit rating, harm its borrowing capacity, and risk forfeiting future federal funding if more than $750,000 in annual federal grants went unreviewed.
The audit findings land days after the Greene County Commission filed a major civil lawsuit against longtime Sheriff Jonathan “Joe” Benison, demanding the return of nearly $5 million in public electronic bingo revenues that state regulators say were illegally spent on employee bonuses, consultants, and retail purchases while vital county services faced major shortfalls.
Reached Friday, the Greene County Commission administrator told WBRC the county would have no comment on the audit results.
State examiners cited the commission for six major compliance breakdowns. Five of them were repeat violations from previous state reviews, pointing to recurring recordkeeping and management issues inside the county courthouse:
- Two years without basic financial books (Finding 2023-001): The county simply never prepared annual financial statements or federal expenditure reports for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. With no procedures in place to close out the books, state examiners said they could not perform a standard financial audit or determine whether the county triggered a mandatory federal single audit.
- Bank balances and bills that didn’t add up (Finding 2023-002): County accounting records were riddled with basic reconciliation gaps. Cash on the general ledger did not match actual bank balances, internal transfers between county funds were left unbalanced, and accounts payable lists conflicted with ledger totals. On top of that, examiners found invoices paid late or missing essential paperwork like purchase orders and prior supervisory sign-offs.
- Property and equipment tracking fell behind (Finding 2023-003): The county failed to keep accurate tabs on its capital assets. New equipment purchases were never reconciled against asset logs, property additions and retirements went unrecorded, and depreciation figures were miscalculated.
- Beer tax money didn’t make it to schools on time (Finding 2023-004): Under state law, Greene County’s beer tax revenue must be shared with the county general fund, local schools, and municipalities. According to state examiners, the commission kept such poor records that examiners could not confirm the money was properly distributed, leaving local entities shortchanged until auditors flagged the issue and prompted retroactive catch-up payments.
- Nearly $700,000 in storm shelters built without public bids (Finding 2023-005): State law requires local governments to competitively bid major construction projects and everyday purchases to protect taxpayer dollars. Instead, the county paid $608,795 in fiscal year 2022 and another $78,500 in fiscal year 2023 — totaling nearly $687,300 — to construct storm shelters without putting the work out for bid. The commission also purchased $27,285 in 2022 and $32,801 in 2023 for janitorial supplies without competitive bids, topping $60,000 across both years and repeating a violation first cited in 2019.
- Spending money the county didn’t have (Finding 2023-006): Alabama law bars county commissions from cutting checks unless the funds are actually in the bank. Yet examiners found multiple road accounts running deep into negative territory. At the close of fiscal year 2022, the Gasoline Tax Fund was overdrawn by more than $1.1 million ($1,106,910.07), alongside a $4,996 deficit in the Road and Bridge Fund. A year later, the Gasoline Tax Fund was still $325,548.35 in the hole, while the Rebuild Alabama Fund held a $62,554.91 deficit.
Finance Director Mac Underwood joined Commissioners Garria Spencer and Tennyson Smith at the state exit conference to review the findings.
The state audit provides fresh scrutiny of county governance at a moment when commissioners are actively litigating over missing public funds.
On Sept. 28, 2026, the commission filed an eight-count civil lawsuit in Greene County Circuit Court against Sheriff Benison, asking a judge to claw back $4,966,427.69 in charges certified unauthorized by state examiners as in September 2025.
That separate state audit into the sheriff’s office revealed Benison collected roughly $16.9 million from electronic bingo operators between 2018 and 2024 and disbursed more than $15.8 million out of a sheriff-controlled account. Examiners cited more than $3.15 million paid to sheriff’s office personnel as bonuses on top of county salaries, $1.17 million to outside consultants and attorneys without documentation, $90,000 in gift cards, and retail spending at restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, and hotels.
County commissioners took legal action after referral letters sent by the Chief Examiner to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office and the local district attorney went uncollected for nearly a year. In court filings, commissioners tied the lost revenue directly to local fiscal emergencies, noting that Greene County Emergency Medical Services was forced to temporarily suspend all county ambulance runs in July 2026 until emergency state aid and private donations intervened.
Neither Sheriff Benison nor the Alabama Attorney General’s Office has filed a formal answer in court to the commission’s lawsuit.
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