BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Editor
LAKE BUTLER — The Union County School Board has received its annual audit for the district’s most recent school year with no discrepancies found in either financial reporting or the final settlement of the fiscal year.
The audit report, compiled by Lyons and Lyons CPAs of MacClenny, did include several conditions. Conditions are matters in financial reporting that do not present any evidence of misreporting or discrepancies but sight areas where things could be done in a better manner. Each of these items is then responded to by the board representative, in this case Finance Director Renae Prevatt. The audit format was significantly different this year, due to changes in the manner in which the state wants audits presented. An overall auditors opinion is no longer present in the report but was given verbally by one of the auditors and the audit was declared to be clean.
Among the conditions cited was one which has plagued the district for the past several years – due to the limited number of available personnel it is not always possible to adequately segregate certain incompatible duties which sometimes left employees handling both assets and their recording. The auditors recommended that this situation be remedied and proper accounting practices (separation of duties) be followed.
Prevatt responded that segregation of duties was not always possible as the district was small and could not afford to hire additional staff at this time. She did say that she would begin making spot-checks on the areas in question to test records kept.
Another condition noted in the audit was that while the reporting of expenditure was done, the spending was either reported as being taken out of one fund when it was actually charged to another, although all monies were accounted for and there did not appear to be any misuse of funds. Prevatt responded that she would reclassify certain types of expenses (in this case class specific curriculum materials) as monies to be reimbursed to the district from the board and any school improvement funds to be handled through the faculty fund rather than the general fund.
It was reported in the audit that bank statements of school internal funds were not always reconciled as soon as they were received, which is required by state guidelines. Prevatt said she would ensure that school bookkeepers completed the reconciliations in a timely manner in the future.
Also noted was an occasional delay in the length of time it took the schools between the reception of money from sponsors of events and their deposit in the appropriate bank account. Once again, the reporting of the fund amounts was accurate and the receipts acknowledged correctly, just not in the timeframe set down by state standards. Prevatt said she would be in contact with all of the school bookkeepers and make sure that they were aware of the timeframe and adhered to it.
In a related condition was the inconsistent use of numbered receipts and tickets for sporting event receipts and other monies. Also, the audit stated that special reports of monies collected were not being completed consistently, which would support receipts written and other incoming funds. It was stated that such practices could lead to mistakes and recommended that established internal control procedures be followed, again mentioning the lack of segregation if duties. Prevatt said she would have school administrators handle this matter, asking them to work with their school bookkeepers to ensure that the proper forms were used at report all receipts.
Other matters commented on as conditions included a time lapse between the issuance of checks and their use (Prevatt said that unless their was written approval from the school principal would be required on all purchases in the future), a formal budget was not being prepared for school internal accounts (with Prevatt responding that one will be done in the future) and problems with the amount advanced to the schools to make change at events was not always deposited back into the account it came from, but rather into the account for the team or group holding the event. Prevatt said she would keep a closer eye on where the deposits went.
All in all, there were no monies missing and no evidence of wrongdoing in the report. All the money was there, just not always in the account it was supposed to be in. All of the conditions were attributed to the limited number or personnel for handing such duties – a situation that is not likely to be able to be resolved in the near future, according to Prevatt.
