Citing accounting errors, officials say Oklahoma County’s available funds are $10 million less than they thought. Now, the district attorney wants a forensic audit of county finances.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna is recommending a forensic audit of county finances after the County Clerk’s office revealed that available funds were overestimated by about $10 million.
In April, the Oklahoma County Clerk’s office announced it had found $14 million that hadn’t been included in the county budget but was still available for use. They said it had never been allocated due to a bookkeeping error.
At last week’s Budget Evaluation Team meeting, the clerk’s office reversed that claim, saying the “found” money is $11 million less than they thought.According to reporting by The Oklahoman, multiple other internal transactions were recorded incorrectly. Errors appear to leave the county budget at $152 million, with a deficit of about $10 million, but county officials said they aren’t sure.
“At this point the information is premature to know exactly where we stand on the amount in the reserve fund and we certainly cannot make a decision at this time on how to move forward,” said Brian Maughan, chairman of the County Budget Board and the Board of County Commissioners.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is continuing to investigate alleged embezzlement in the clerk’s office, which County Clerk Maressa Treat said was unrelated to the bookkeeping errors.
Behenna has recommended a forensic audit of the county government’s finances. County commissioners must decide whether to move forward with the audit, possibly as early as their regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday.
Update (by Gazette staff)
On Friday, September 18, 2026, the Oklahoma County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously (3-0) to request a limited audit of Oklahoma County’s FY 2025 budget. The vote occurred during a meeting specially called to decide the matter. After noting that the her office is not involved with setting or reviewing the budget, District Attorney Vicki Behenna, she went on to tell the commissioners that “…it is the job of the D.A.’s office to advise elected officials about what steps they should take.”
Behenna went on to say, “When I started hearing in the news about discrepancy in numbers, and how numbers were changing, my advice…was to get an independent audit. We are at a critical time right now in Oklahoma County and trying to finalize our budget, and so it seems to me, and with conversations I’ve had with the State Auditor and staff at the state auditor, they have made clear to me that they think they know what the issue is and how the numbers got skewed.”
The budget deadline per Behenna is October 8, and so given the limited time available, she recommended against a full forensic audit at this time, “…because I have no evidence that any criminal activity, other than the embezzlement, and that is under investigation already,” she said. Behenna said a limited audit will give auditors a chance to see if numbers are off because of inaccurate reporting or if funds are actually being taken. She went on to say that the State Auditor’s office believes they can “…figure out where the problem is, give us advice about how to finalize our budget in a week or two,” which would allow the county to finalize the supplemental budget sometime in October.
This article appears in Thunder Season Preview.