A lakes area community that had a former city employee dismissed because of potential misuse of funds will now see an investigation from the State of Missouri.

The release from the Missouri State Auditor's Office is below:

The possibility of misused city funds that led to the termination of the former police chief has prompted Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick to begin an audit of the City of Merriam Woods, located in Taney County. The audit was petitioned by city officials, who adopted an ordinance requesting the review after the city discovered "discrepancies and misappropriation" with their bank accounts and credit cards.

"Thankfully city officials were able to discover the potential fraud and act quickly to prevent additional taxpayer dollars from being misused. Now we will do our best to provide a complete picture to the city and the residents of Merriam Woods about what happened so they have the answers they deserve, and so they will have a roadmap for how to prevent something similar from happening in the future," said Auditor Fitzpatrick.

The problems in Merriam Woods were first brought to the attention of the State Auditor's Office with a Whistleblower Hotline complaint. An investigation of the complaint found the city's concerns to be credible, and recommended an audit of the city. City officials then adopted a resolution inviting the Auditor's Office to conduct the audit. Members of the State Auditor's Office officially began the audit on July 23 with an entrance meeting with city officials.

Individuals may provide confidential information for consideration during the audit of the City of Merriam Woods to the State Auditor's Whistleblower Hotline at 800-347-8597, by email at moaudit@auditor.mo.gov or by visiting www.auditor.mo.gov/hotline.