Jun 26, 2002 2 min read

The case of the missing refrigerators raises questions as to how well the Fayette County Housing Authority handles its inventory. Consider that three weeks have passed since an employee noticed that five refrigerators were missing from a storage warehouse at the Bierer Wood Acres site. The authority has yet to determine if they were misplaced, stolen or legitimately installed in apartments. Not only is this internal delay puzzling, given the housing authority’s boasting of a computerized inventory tracking system, but police have yet to be notified of a potential theft. And the longer the time lapse between an alleged crime and the reporting to police the more difficult it becomes to solve as the trail grows cold.

Once a reporter was tipped to the loss and then questioned executive director Thomas L. Harkless, Harkless set a deadline for staff to produce requisition forms for the refrigerators. Why such a long delay? If the authority’s inventory is computerized and if managers are required to fill out and retain paperwork, this information should have taken no longer than a few hours to produce.

If a paper trail is lacking then obviously one of two things happened: Someone messed up and forgot to fill out the forms or someone stole the appliances. The appliances certainly didn’t grow legs and leave on their own.

If it was an internal screw-up, then perhaps better internal controls should be enforced that require paper in hand before items are moved from storage. If it was theft then time has been lost.

There was no reason Harkless couldn’t have notified authorities, explained that it might just be a problem with paperwork and then work with them to sort it out.

Also troubling is Harkless’ statement during a board meeting Tuesday that the refrigerators, valued at $1,500, are a relatively minor loss. If refrigerators can walk out of storage without documentation, and with a supposed sophisticated inventory system, what else might be missing?