JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
Over the last seven years, 22 travel trailers, boats and pieces of equipment were sold to the city of Bassfield in Jefferson Davis County. Worth more than $300,000, coming from state surplus, the price tag came with a substantial discount.
The problem is, the property never went to the city. Instead, State Auditor Stacey Pickering says two city employees sold all of it to friends and family in Mississippi and Louisiana.
"They were originally only purchased for $52,000. That's how the program works. That was never intended to be in the private market. It was intended to be government entities being able to use these items for the use of the public and for the good of the public," said Pickering.
Pickering says through an audit process and tip offs from whistle blowers, the state was able to figure out what happened and who was behind it.
"The way that this was done, purchased under the title of the city of Bassfield, you have city employees, government employees who knew they were circumventing the laws, the surplus property laws of the state of Mississippi," said Pickering.
"This has been going on for several years and small. One trailer here and one trailer there," said director of investigations David Huggins.
Huggins says it worked like this. Private citizens would meet up with the Bassfield employees who had purchasing power. Those employees would buy the property on behalf of Bassfield and then the citizen would pay the city.
"This one trailer is a $40,000 trailer. They bought it for $4,000," said Huggins. "That's a good deal."
All 22 items have been voluntarily returned at the expense of the individuals who bought them. While there was no loss of taxpayer money, Pickering says it was a definite scheme.
"What we had here is a situation where a couple of city employees from the city of Bassfield betrayed the public trust," said Pickering.
The city employees in question are no longer employed by the city and their case has been turned over to the district attorney. The recovered property will be put back in the state's surplus system.
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