Question: Treasurer Not Providing Receipt

Our treasurer made a purchase of $500.00 and did not provide a receipt. Apparently the purchase was made with cash. The items purchased do not look worth $500.00. She withdrew the money and she is the signer on withdrawls. We just held our elections and she won. The rest of the group does not want her as treasurer next year. Also, we want her to provide a true receipt of purchase. We brought it to the Principle's attention and are waiting for a response. What can we do to remove her from this position? And what other steps can we take regarding the receipt?

Asked by Vero

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Craig writes:
The very first thing you should do is to put some financial controls in place, if you don't have them already. Theft in cases involving parent groups is a crime of opportunity. You need to severely limit that opportunity and make it obvious to your treasurer -- or anyone else who is tempted -- that if she "borrows" money, she will be caught. The article 5 Smart Financial Controls outlines the key steps. The most important one: Have the bank statements mailed to someone other than the treasurer each month. Choose an officer who is not a signer on the checking account. She reviews the statements to make sure there's nothing unusual, then passes them on to the treasurer. Regarding your current situation, institute a policy that no one will be reimbursed without receipts and strongly emphasize it to all of your members as a financial safeguard. Then require your treasurer to document where she made the purchases. You may not have receipts, but you can still check the prices. If she's off by $20, that's one thing. If she's off by $200, you'll know you have a significant problem. Right now you only have suspicions, so you'll be hard-pressed to remove her from office. From here on out, make sure you have a paper trail so you can know when there's been a misuse of your hard-earned funds. Good luck, and please don't hesitate to post again if we can help.

Community Advice

Vero writes:
We have the following written in our Rules and Regulations: A reimbursement form needs to filled out for reimbursements with receipt or invoice provided. If this is already established, can we ask her to resign? She has already made it clear that she is not going to provide a receipt.

Community Advice

gjcoram writes:
Do your by-laws provide for removal of officers? Ours have specific wording about a the board being able to suspend an officer immediately for cause, with a vote at the next general meeting to remove the officer.