Wake County manager wants countywide audit

Questionable spending practices of a former Wake County employee have the county manager calling for a countywide audit.

In a memo Thursday to the Wake County Board of Commissioners, County Manager David Cooke stated he would recommend an independent audit of all county departments for the past year. The Environmental Services Department will be audited for the past two years.

The decision comes after Craig Wittig was fired from his job on June 3 as a recycling coordinator for the county's Solid Waste Management Division.

County officials found out he had taken at least 46 taxpayer-funded trips since he was hired in February 2006.

Wittig said the trips were efforts to research environmental programs in other parts of the country so that Wake County could develop a state-of-the-art recycling program.

But others were approved without a work-related purpose.

Including Wittig, seven employees in the Solid Waste Management Division charged $165,165 to credit cards issued by Wake County between April 2006 and last month, according to county records.

Some county commissioners have called for other employees to be fired in the case, but Cooke said he is still reviewing the case to determine whether other disciplinary action is warranted.