Local newspapers have covered the ongoing law enforcement investigation into theft of perhaps $30,000 within the Ocean Pines Administration Building. OPA has never formally notified association members of this investigation.

However, there are other areas of theft and corruption within OPA which have not been mentioned as a target of law enforcement investigation. One of these areas is the Ocean Pines Yacht Club. Multiple reliable sources report ongoing theft and corruption involved there. The amounts and scale appear to far surpass the $30,000 theft of cash arriving at the Administration Building from all OPA operations, money that somehow disappeared between the Administration Building and deposit to a local bank.

These sources say $70,000 to over $100,000 was stolen directly at the Yacht Club over a 24-month period. The accused perpetrator is said to have confessed, but OPA did nothing other than fire the individual.

Other corruption at the Yacht Club, perhaps unrelated to outright theft of cash by this one individual, may involve the Yacht Club and other OPA departments in corruption related to fake or inflated invoices for goods and services delivered to the Yacht Club by outside vendors. This general area of corruption was first reported in the Ocean Pines Progress.

Another issue is OPA's handling of receipts from banquets. OPA's financial department reported receipts are said to be lower than the actual revenue received from those holding banquets. Net result, if true, would be to decrease the payments to the staff working the event, lower income for the banquet manager, and a reduction in the tax due to the State of Maryland. 

Potential damage to OPA for all this over time could be $1 million.... and there are other areas to examine.

These issues of theft and corruption are not just something recent, and could go back a decade or more. It is time for the OPA Board of Directors to act, and do a complete forensic audit on every department within OPA. Such an audit will take time and money, perhaps a year or more at a cost of perhaps $250,000 or more.

The board meets on Sunday, February 25th at 12 noon in the Assateague Room. A motion or discussion of an audit will likely be on the agenda. One director is said to prefer a motion to only look at OPA's POS (Point of Sale) systems. This is entirely inadequate and should not even be considered. Association members want endemic theft and corruption exposed and stopped.

Transparency rarely causes problems; lack of transparency frequently causes problems.