State Comptroller says CFO David Miller did not hold mandated credentials
By ELIZABETH A MEYERS
MERCER COUNTY, NJ — The former Mercer County Chief Financial Officer, David Miller, was unqualified to hold the position says the Acting New Jersey State Comptroller Kevin Walsh in a scathing report issued on Tuesday.
The Office of State Comptroller (OSC) report detailed the findings of an investigation launched after a 2021 confidential complaint filed with the agency says that former Mercer County Financial Officer, David Miller did not hold the proper credentials mandated under state law for the position.
The OSC report says that under Miller’s leadership the finance department “lacked basic internal financial controls; it did not have an organizational chart, written policies, or a system of checks and balances to ensure that its financial system was properly managed.”
The report says that because of Miller’s mismanagement the County paid more than $4.5 million in fees and penalties for delinquent tax payments to the IRS and State Treasury.
The investigation further found that Miller “did not have, nor did he seek to obtain, the statutorily required credentials to hold the position of CFO—for the entire time he was employed by the County.”
State law requires a county chief financial officer to obtain a certified municipal finance officer certificate from the Division of Local Government Service under the Department of Community Affairs. Requirements to obtain such a certificate include experience in county finance, a higher education degree in business administration or accounting, and references that will attest to the applicants’ moral character.
The CFO is appointed by the county executive and serves for a three-year term with a salary set by the County. Miller’s annual salary was reportedly $161,000 per year.
During the ongoing OSC investigation, Mercer County was informed that the CFO was placed on administrative leave without pay for his failure to secure the credentials. A county spokesperson confirmed that Miller was placed on unpaid leave on August 15, 2022 and then subsequently terminated.
“The report reveals circumstances and events which the County thoroughly investigated through special outside counsel. Those findings led to an immediate referral of the matter to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and is now in their hands. We are cooperating fully with those agencies and have been for months since the Administration first uncovered the problems with its CFO in August, 2022,” said a Mercer County spokesperson.
“The Administration and the taxpayers were let down by Mr. Miller,” the spokesperson continued. “We are doing our level best to learn from this experience and taking steps to avoid their recurrence and to recover the expenses occasioned by Mr. Miller’s conduct and to hold him accountable.
Appointed by Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, the CFO operated independently, with minimal oversight by his supervisor, OSC found.
The OSC further reported that the Mercer County Administrator, who manages day-to-day affairs for county government, gave the CFO “substantial discretion in handling departmental operations.”
“In the absence of effective internal controls monitored by executive level employees, the deference provided to the CFO allowed the waste to go undetected for years,” concluded the OSC report.
The OSC report noted that Miller’s attorney, who was not named, told the agency that, if interviewed, Miller “intended to exercise his right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.