The City of Natchez’s horrendous financial situation has gone from bad to downright embarrassing.

Last week, aldermen asked Magnolia Bluffs Casino for what would technically be an advance on the casino’s lease payment for city land it occupies at the foot of Roth Hill Road.

The casino pays the city $1 million annually for use of the land — in addition to other payments tied to the lease. The casino pays the lease payment on a monthly basis.

Facing a shortage of cash to pay routine bills and payroll, the city asked for the next three months’ payment in advance.

Eventually, the city decided the prepayment was not necessary, but in the process, Kevin Preston, the casino’s president, has expressed legitimate concerns about where other payments the casino has paid to the city — including ones that are to be used for a mutually agreed upon project — have gone. The lease uses the creation of a YMCA, recreation facility or civil rights museum as examples.

Preston wonders where the payments — approximately $200,000 per year for five years — have been applied.

Alderman Dan Dillard said he’s not certain where the funds are either, but fears they were not segregated from other funds and may have been spent on other projects already.

If that’s true — and given the past way in which the city has handled its money, we have no reason to believe it is not true — the city must resolve this quickly.

The practice of handling public funds willy-nilly must end and all of the past mistakes must be identified and resolved. If hiring a forensic accountant to help the new city clerk’s staff will help, then we encourage the city to do so.