Phila. library firing 3 accused in embezzling scheme

The Free Library of Philadelphia is firing three employees accused of embezzling more than $9,000 in overdue book fines, and officials say they will adopt policies and procedures to prevent such theft in the future.

It wasn't an elaborate scheme, but rather lax accounting and oversight that made it all too easy for employees to skim off the top, city Inspector General Amy Kurland said Monday.

The three library assistants had sole responsibility for bank deposits and record-keeping at their respective branches. "Someone would come in and hand over $10 for an overdue book, and the [library assistant] could just put it in their pocket or enter it in the computer as 'forgiven,' " Kurland said.

Kurland's report says the employees "always prepared deposit documentation unobserved, alone in a room with closed doors," and "took steps to hide the missing bank deposits."

The library assistants were identified as Natalie Collins at the Haddington branch in West Philadelphia, Linda Robinson at the Kingsessing branch in Southwest Philadelphia, and Patricia Finley at the Wyoming branch in Feltonville. The report has been referred to the District Attorney's Office for possible prosecution.

Kurland said her office uncovered the alleged theft because the branches' accounting records were incomplete or inconsistent. "We started with one and then found out it was common with the different branches," she said.

It took weeks of computer tracking and comparing disparate records to figure out how much money actually disappeared from May 2009 to November 2010, Kurland said.

Two managers are being disciplined for insufficient oversight, officials said, and the library is already implementing some of the report's recommended fixes. Among them: Have two employees count the cash drawer and sign off on it each night; reconcile discrepancies among various bank accounts and library records; and tighten the process for waiving fines.