Harlan Kirgan
A $275,000 deficit believed to have been incurred about seven years ago at the St. Landry Parish Community Action Agency resurfaced at a Parish Council committee meeting.
Steven Moosa, CPA with Darnall, Sikes & Frederick, reported the deficit as he explained an audit of the agency done for the year ending July 31, 2018.
The audit presentation on Thursday resulted in the commitee requesting Kirsten Thomas, CAA executive director, to attend the committee’s meeting in April. The deficit occurred before Thomas became director.
Moosa said the deficit was created when energy assistance money was spent for operations rather than assistance, which resulted in state asking for the funds to be reimbursed.
The agency could ask that the the state address the issue, but that was questioned by Wayne Ardoin, committee chairman, who said, “...it is better to just let a dead dog lay.”
The audit morphed from an audit issue into one of control with Ardoin and others questioning Parish President Bill Fontenot about why the CAA director was not present.
“We need that transparency,” Ardoin said.
“There are some questions being asked right now Mr. Fontenot about that program, about the energy program, about some of the people being waited on,” Ardoin said.
Council member Harold Taylor said to Fontenot, “You don’t have the details of what his lady does every day. You don’t have the details on what we do here every day.”
He added, “Let us just be fair about this and straight and quit mealy mouthing about it. If we are responsible for the damn budget we need to have the people here to tell us what is going on. End of story.”
Legal counsel Garrett Duplechain said the Parish Council decides every August whether to continue the CAA Program. The program operates under the umbrella of Parish Government, he said.
Jerry Red, Council chairman, said some CAA employees were not paid during this year’s government shutdown.
Fontenot said the money was not restored to make the employees whole and that is the same situation as occurred when the $275,000 deficit was created.
As for the audit, Moosa said the about a million dollars flows through CAA each year. The 2918 budget year ended with a $24,000 deficit, he said.
The audit shows the CAA started the year with a $66,000 deficit.
Major revenue streams at CAA are Community Services Block Grant providing services such as food; Low-income Home Energy Assistance; Senior Companion providing volunteer opportunities; Transportation; Emergency Food and Shelter; Medicaid; Project Care, which provides direct payment for home energy supplies; and Special Fund for resources and expenditures not required to be accounted for another fund.