Mount Olive found to lose over $210,000 in revenue after tip leads to state audit, officials say

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. (WNCN) — The auditor with the state of North Carolina announced Thursday that Mount Olive is the latest town under investigation for an audit.

State Auditor Dave Boliek said his office received allegations through their tipline about the Town of Mount Olive, the Mount Olive Water Department, and the Mount Olive Municipal Airport and the handling of an employee’s timesheet.

However, during their investigation, the Office of the State Auditor came across additional findings that prompted a deeper investigation into whether or not town officials committed fraud and misdirected funds, on top of the inaccurate timesheets allegations.

According to the latest audit report, the Town of Mount Olive made “negligent data entries,” resulting in $210,837 in lost revenue.

In addition to money lost by the town, the report also said numerous customers’ utility cutoff fees were voided. The report showed a certain cluster of households whose cutoff fee was voided from April 15, 2024, through May 15, 2024.

Another factor reported in the audit was that a sitting town commissioner failed to pay their utility bills for several months.

“The Commissioner did not make a single payment on his utility bill until August 2024 – when OSA received the allegation – at which point his outstanding balance was $942,” the report said.

The report also said the Water Department Supervisor voided her own cutoff fees on her utility account in 11 of 12 months last year. Officials said the Town of Mount Olive suspended and ultimately terminated the supervisor at the beginning of 2025. The same happened to a billing clerk, who voided fees in 9 of 12 months in 2024.

“Proper management at the local level is incredibly important to ensuring resources are not abused and protocol is followed,” said State Auditor Dave Boliek. “Our Investigative Division took a deep dive into Mount Olive’s finances and uncovered several concerning issues. Local officials agreed with the findings in our report. Now, it’s time for our recommendations to be put into action.”

In addition to the utility rates mishap, the report also showed that the Town of Mount Olive improperly purchased fuel for the airport — a move that should’ve been done by the Municipal Airport. In turn, officials said the Town bears the financial burden of providing fuel for the airport.

The report also revealed that town officials were in dispute with an airport operator over Wi-Fi and phone expenses, illustrated in a ten-year contract that was designed to be paid for by the town. However, the audit found that the airport operator was supposed to pay for the services.

Regarding two other hefty allegations — a mismanagement of an employee’s timesheet and a misappropriation of tourism tax revenue from the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce — officials said those allegations were unfounded.

In response to the audit report, Interim Town Manager Glenn Holland said, “The Town takes these allegations seriously and will work to improve processes related to fiscal management.”

Town officials then listed the following solutions they plan to implement to correct the mistakes:

• They plan to “pursue the collection of outstanding balances of all inactive accounts” to handle the loss of revenue from voided utility cutoff fees.
• Town and airport officials will develop a working contract so that the airport can pay back the town money owed from fuel services.
• However, the audit could not determine what the airport operator owed the Town of Mount Olive due to “conflicting billing statements as well as multiple contracts existing between the Town and the service provider.”