Luzerne County Government

January 6, 2010

Prothonotary employee suspended last month

Officials won’t say whether the disciplinary action is linked to money missing from office.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
Jennifer Learn-Andes on Facebook   |   @TLJenLearnAndes on Twitter

Luzerne County prothonotary clerk Pamela Yanac has been suspended without pay since Dec. 18, but county officials won’t say whether the suspension has any connection to allegations of missing money in the office.

The county District Attorney’s Office is investigating because former acting prothonotary Beth Decker had reported that funds were missing from the office. Nobody has been charged.

County Prothonotary Carolee Medico Olenginski said on Monday, after being sworn into the office, that she was told the employee linked to the theft had signed a confession. She declined to identify the suspect.

“She’s still receiving health care benefits, and I don’t think an alleged thief should,” Medico Olenginski said on Monday.

Yanac, hired to work for the county in January 2004, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. She had been paid $24,144.

County Controller Walter Griffith, who also took office Monday, said he assigned his deputy controller and senior auditor to complete an audit of the Prothonotary’s Office. Griffith said his staffers were working with the District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday morning.

“They’ll try to ascertain the amount of money missing,” Griffith said.

The Controller’s Office has not audited the Prothonotary’s Office since 2005, he said.

Medico Olenginski said Tuesday that the amount of missing money may be more than originally expected based on records uncovered in the office.

District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll said Tuesday that she can’t cite an estimate of how much money is missing because her office is waiting for the Controller’s Office audit.

Medico Olenginski said she discovered Tuesday that her predecessor, Jill Moran, had eliminated security measures that could have detected the missing money. Medico Olenginski said she implemented these measures when she served as prothonotary from 1998 to 2002.

For example, Medico Olenginski said at least some of the missing money is believed to have been in the office’s passport division.

Medico Olenginski had required three receipts for passport transactions. One receipt was given to the customer for proof of payment. The second went in the register to back up the deposit.

The third went in a log book of all passport transactions, filed in sequential order.

If a passport transaction was voided for any reason, all three receipts had to be filed in the log, Medico Olenginski said. That way, an employee could not give a customer a receipt, pocket the money and make the record look as if the transaction was voided, she said.

Medico Olenginski said she has instructed her staff to return to the three-receipt system.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.

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