We’re hearing from sources within Robbins that the town manager and mayor Cameron Dockery are claiming that – on advice of counsel – they cannot comment publicly on the audit. That sounds like they expect future litigation or prosecution.
Here’s a recap of the audit’s findings:
Dockery has remained publicly silent on the audit as have the three political heavy-hitters who all greatly assisted Dockery’s victory in the March primary for the county commissioner district 2 seat: state Rep. Neal Jackson, county commissioner Tom Adams, and Sandhills Community College board of trustees chairman Larry Caddell.
[…] Town Manager Clint Mack, in a short phone interview, confirmed that most of the details found in the report have been previously identified and addressed. But because the town is two years behind on its audits, the town’s work to address previous discrepancies has not been officially noted.
“We are the closest we have ever been to compliance,” Mack said. “Ever.”
Mack called the several findings minor issues that happened over five years as the town struggled to retain a financial officer. Some also relate to the town’s procedures, which have been updated to comply with state law.
“No fraud, waste or abuse was found,” Mack said of the report. “That shows that everyone here is working for the public.
On Thursday, Robbins Mayor Cameron Dockery provided a full copy of the audit report, the town’s official response and additional materials detailing the town’s efforts toward transparency. He said the town cooperated fully with auditors and seeks to be open with the community about how it is amending its policies and procedures.[…]
Okay, where to begin?
What choice did Dockery have but to “provide” it? The audit was already public record on the state Auditor’s website.
First, how do you know there was no waste, fraud and abuse? (There was at least ONE forged check. All kinds of duplicate payments. You still have two years worth of unreconciled checks.)
Here’s an excerpt from the audit:
I take that to mean this whole thing required a ‘snitch’ in order to bring it into the light. The town wasn’t on top of it. They got interested in fixing the situation when the Auditor’s office got interested.
The audit details a meeting between the state auditor’s team and the town in August 2025. Dockery ran in the March 2026 GOP primary for county commissioner. How ethical and responsible was Dockery to run for higher office while the town he served as mayor was experiencing a financial catastrophe?
Better yet: When did Jackson, Adams, and Caddell learn of the financial mess and ensuing audit in Robbins? They all vouched for Dockery as an experienced, skilled municipal manager.
Did they willfully deceive the voters of Moore County by keeping this quiet until after the election?
How likely was it that Dockery would be elevated to the county board of commissioners if the voters knew the details of the financial mess in Robbins during his tenure as mayor?
Was political pressure exerted to keep the audit quiet until after the March primary?
More from the audit:
It appears most people take better care managing their own finances than these people in Robbins did managing public finances. This is looking like incompetence, or corruption, or perhaps BOTH. None of those options is good for the voters of Robbins or the taxpayers of Moore County.
The auditor had to tell the town about the forgery.
The Robbins town manager laid the blame on all of this on personnel problems within town government:
[…] Finding l:
We acknowledge the vital importance of bank reconciliation which led to the decision to
outsource the task due to long-tenn staff shortages and lack of continuity in the finance
department. The town will continue its progress towards completion. Bank reconciliation has
been completed to the best of staff’s ability through spreadsheets due to the reconciliation gap
being so vast for reasons undetermined prior to 2021. The Town’s previous CPA was making vast
improvements until his resignation due to changing his employment unexpectedly to the Town of
Spring Lake, NC. exclusively. The previous Finance Officer was specifically hired to aid in bank reconciliation based on their stated experience, however, this turned out to not be a viable skillset leading to management accepting their resignation.
Finding 2:
The town currently adheres to the invoice approval and preaudit process and will ensure that
invoices are marked .. PAID” upon completion. The overpaid invoice was for $11,600 was
identified and specifically mentioned to the Finance Officer to “not mail until reimbursement is
confirmed” yet it still was and was mistakenly reissued after their resignation. Management
assumes responsibility for applying the overage to the next invoice for the project but will ensure
a credit memo is received in the future in lieu of any other use of the funds. […]
I’ve heard of “the buck stops here,” but this is more “the buck stops somewhere over there with him or him or maybe him.”
Reconciliations had not been done FOR YEARS. That’s basic accounting, y’all.
If the town is having this much trouble finding competent, experienced people to perform basic municipal management tasks, maybe it’s time to start thinking about whether Robbins is viable enough to continue being incorporated. Maybe it needs to transition into a community overseen by Moore County government.
SOMEBODY in town government needs to fall on their sword for this. Where was the mayor — where were the council members – during this five year period?
Folks, this is what you get when you don’t pay attention to municipal elections and city government operations. There very well could be worse stuff happening in other Moore County towns. We have no elected leaders to help us root it out. We have little to no watchdog media to help us. We’ve got to take care of business ourselves.
We’ve already laid out the explosive details of the audit of The Town of Robbins money management nightmare.
Dockery has remained publicly silent on the audit as have the three political heavy-hitters who all greatly assisted Dockery’s victory in the March primary for the county commissioner district 2 seat: state Rep. Neal Jackson, county commissioner Tom Adams, and Sandhills Community College board of trustees chairman Larry Caddell.
