According to legislative audit findings disclosed last week, the city of Carthage is making progress in its efforts to recover from financial mismanagement related to cash accounts, but it still has far to go.

Previous reports discovered $52,500 in unauthorized cash withdrawals from former City Recorder/Treasurer Christopher Ogburn, who resigned in June 2023 after negotiating a guilty plea to theft of property. He was sentenced to 120 months probation and had to pay restitution of $50,200.

Subsequently, city officials instituted a number of new accounting procedures for its municipal accounts, including greater monitoring and reconciliation of accounts, disbursements being made with town council approval, and better maintaining of its cash journal.

The audit findings disclosed last week also included issues related to payroll reports and documentation. The report said state and federal taxes had not been remitted for city employees, and their payroll taxes had not been properly withheld.

Carthage’s general fund also had a negative balance of $19,002.

In response to the audit findings, city officials said they have instituted changes to correct the lack of payroll taxes being withheld and are in the process of paying back taxes to the state and feds. Carthage is also making payments to the Dallas County Treasurer for election costs.

A report on the town of Thornton was also delivered in the legislative audit hearing last week. In 2024, Thornton was in noncompliance for not properly adopting its budget or suitably maintaining its cash disbursement journals. It did not publish or post its annual financial statement, nor did it provide council minutes for inspection to auditors.

The Princeton-Tulip Water Association was found to have uninsured cash deposits totaling $313,903 on December 31, 2025.

There were no legislative findings for the city of Fordyce.