Two top aides to Florida CFO Alex Sink abruptly handed in their resignations Thursday night. Out are Doug Darling (pictured, right), chief of the state Division of Accounting and Auditing, and Herb Fillyaw, chief of the Division of Information Systems. Sink confirmed both men were asked to resign.

The ouster comes days after the auditing firm Deloitte & Touche completed an audit of the agency's internal controls following the discovery of a scheme to defraud the state of millions of dollars by a Lebanese man living in Broward County. The audit found a lack of internal controls. The scheme was spotted by alert employees of Regions Bank and the road contractor Anderson Columbia.

"One of my concerns about state government is that you have an environment where people have been doing the same thing the same way, year after year after year," Sink said in an interview Friday. "We just uncovered some things that I would call 'Control 101.'^"

Darling earns about $111,000 a year and Fillyaw about $116,000. Replacements have already been named to both posts.

Steve Bousquet, Times Capital Bureau Chief

[Photo: Steve Bousquet, Times]

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