The Marion County Board Finance Committee addressed four issues raised by its auditor Whipfly as they get ready to finalize the long overdue fiscal year 2022 audit.
Board Chair Steve Whritenour noted some of the issues were already being addressed.
“By breaking down to separate committees, now having a budget committee, an insurance committee and finance instead of it all being one, and some tighter controls,” Whritenour said. “With the budget committee we’re working on trying to simplify a lot of things. The point came up tonight that there are five line items that use the term ‘off the books,’ and we’re going to ask on a quarterly basis that these line items are rectified as we go along.”
The office holders who have control of those funds will be asked to provide revenue and expenses at the end of each quarter.
Whritenour will work with State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth to formalize a procurement process for bidding. Whritenour feels they are bidding properly, but the policy may not be in writing.
“We’re definitely making the right changes,” Whritenour said. “I really think that moving forward we’re going to speed up this audit process and it can be done in a timely manner. We have six months by state statute to have it done. We don’t want to end up on the state stop payment list again, because in order for us to get grants we’ve got to keep the audit wheels turning. I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
One issue they can’t resolve is having a person outside all of the offices who can review expenditures. Finance Committee Chair Chris Krupp says that is a control problem all small units of government face.
With the board answers, Whritenour is hopeful the Fiscal Year 2022 Audit can be finished in the near future. Whipfly will then move on to the Fiscal Year 2023 Audit which isn’t expected to take as much time. The CPA firm will than move on to the Fiscal Year 2024 and Fiscal Year 2025 audits to get caught up.
