Van Buren County Mayor Greg Wilson said discrepancies recently found in a state audit were simple clerical errors.
The Tennessee Comptrollers Office found nine findings and recommendations in the audit of last year’s financial reports. Wilson said the Comptroller’s Finance Division discovered the problems and is working with the county to correct the issues. He said changes in the Comptroller’s Office has also led to growing pains.
“This is a new division within Comptroller,” Wilson said. “Now we fall under that new division. Before there were only three divisions, and now there are six, and it’s left up to them whether they want their counties to do that.”
Among the findings, unassigned fund balances in the general and solid waste/sanitation funds as well as cash overdrafts during the year in three different funds. The General Debt Service and General Capital Projects funds required audit adjustments for proper financial statement presentation. The audit also found the county failed to make scheduled principal and interest payments on capital outlay notes.
“When we sent in a form for our funds, like when you move money from one fund to the other, we sent in the correct forms for that, but without the approval letter from them,” Wilson said.
State officials found deficiencies in the county’s purchasing process. COVID-19 has made that process more difficult, according to Wilson. He said funds are being moved more often as officials respond to the pandemic.
“We started recognizing it back in February,” Wilson said. “We had a meeting with our EMA and Public Safety as food was beginning to fly off shelves. We ordered 25 or 50 percent more of certain items, especially sanitizer and toilet paper. We have a jail to run.”
Wilson told county commissioners Tuesday night that he took the blame for issues in the audit, admitting he is not a finance director. He said the county staff is working hard to fix the issues.
For now, the county must temporarily submit financial documents to the state every week. The extra scrutiny, Wilson said, is actually good for the county. He said the state is trying to help local governments watch expenses and make sure they have adequate funds to reach the end of the fiscal year.
The post Van Buren Fixing Audit Issues; Most Clerical appeared first on News Talk 94.1/AM 1600.