Philadelphia reconciles $21 million in 'missing' funds

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Philadelphia authorities have reconciled much of the city's accounts to locate most of the seemingly "missing" $33 million.

City finance officials said Friday the term missing money gives a misconception that it was misspent or stolen. Finance officials with the help of an outside financial firm have spent the last few months reconciling accounts from three previous years to find the funds.

The "missing" amount went from $33.3 million to $23.3 million to $2.1 million as of Friday. Officials say $21 million was found after examiners saw duplicate payment entries made in different accounts, but money only taken from one.

Officials say the full reconciliation will be finished by year's end and procedures and new policies have been put in place to prevent the issue from happening again.