There’s another case of misplaced money in state government and the state Auditor issued an apology today.

The office of State Auditor Tim Berry recently disclosed mistakes of more than $500,000 in the distribution of auto excise tax money to counties.  Berry sent out an e-mail to county auditors around the state with a subject line that reads “Apologies.”

Berry is taking the rap for mistakes that led some counties to receive too much money in the April distribution and others too little.  It follows two software mistakes in the Department of Revenue that resulted in more than half a billion dollars being discovered in the wrong accounts.

In the e-mail Berry tells auditors that “controls failed in this circumstance.  “As a result,” he says, “we have modified these controls.”

Governor Mitch Daniels addressed the matter by saying, “No government that ever was was 100% perfect and that’s why we build systems to catch problems and fix them as fast as we can.”

“The good news,” Daniels said, “is there’s lots of money these days to keep track of and we’re gonna make sure it all gets in the right bag, all the beans get in the right bag, very quickly.”

Democrats, meantime, say the executive branch needs more oversight.  State Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson is calling for more checks and balances and an audit that would include what she calls “process analysis” so that future problems can be avoided.  She says taxpayers deserve better.