On February 23, 2010 the Sac County Supervisors reviewed the comments from the Fiscal Year 2008-2009 governmental audit performed on Sac County by the firm Hunzelman, Putzier & Co., PLC.
These audits are performed to both assist government entities to stay honest and to look for signs of deliberate wrongdoing. The following documents are the findings of that audit and are then followed by the Sac County Supervisors proposed responses to those findings.
Sac County Auditor, Jim Dowling who presented the audit characterized the comments as "Not too harsh," saying that there was a couple of things that the supervisors need to address. He pointed out that there were some items that were already addressed as a result of the auditor's visit in late 2009.
A common comment on almost every audit performed on small government entities is that there is not enough segregation of duties. As Mr. Dowling joked, "We should just hire ten more people and see if [the auditors take the complaint] out." That joke is heard all over northwestern Iowa this time of year as the auditors make their findings. It is not realistically expected that any entity with as few employees as the Sac County government will be able to properly segregate the office duties, but the game has to be played.
On a more serious note, Mr. Dowling pointed out to the supervisors the item entitled, "Excess Fund Balance." The excess fund balance is in the capitol projects fund balance where the county started the communications center project years ago. When they started that project, they borrowed the money from the American National Bank so they could pay the contractor as they went.
Upon completion of the communications center, they converted that debt to the debt service fund so that they could levy against all property in the county.
During the transition there was an estimated $10,000 left in that fund which is still there to this day. According to Mr. Dowling, transferring that money into debt service will lower their debt service levy for next year.
Mr. Dowling was instructed to put it in next year's budget.
Sac County Supervisor, Rick Hecht was concerned about the comments regarding excess vacation hours. He said that the issue of excess vacation hours “comes up every time. It shouldn't continue to come back."
Mr. Dowling told him that the new software package that the office will begin using in March 2010 will allow them to keep better track of those hours. The inference was that they would then be able to act more quickly.
Mr. Hecht then addressed the item on page 3 of the report entitled, "Certified Budget" that discussed disbursements that exceeded the budget in the CPC (mental health) office. He said the following:
"...we knew the write up was going to be noted here. With our relatively new CPC, [Lisa Bethune] where they have a... It's really a complex bookkeeping situation in that they have three different sets of numbers that they have to keep track of, including the local budget, a cash bookwork system, and an accrual bookwork system and it makes [keeping track of everything] really difficult."
He continued saying that this situation was pointed out to them last summer and that they have had a discussion with Ms. Bethune who Hecht claims told him that the mistake that led to this write up will not happen again. In her defense Mr. Hecht emphasized that the system is very complicated explaining, "the State sends their money down to us on an accrual system, yet [the mental health office is expected to] locally manage a cash accounting system and it just makes it very difficult."
The recommendations for corrective action measures, (final page) were adopted by the Sac County Supervisors at the February 23, 2010 meeting. With that adoption, the Fiscal Year 2008-2009 audit is completed.
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