By Harlan Kirgan
Editor
OPELOUSAS — An audit of St. Landry Parish Government found a sharply reduced number of findings.
Steve Moosa, a CPA with Darnall Sikes & Frederick, presented the audit ending Dec. 31, 2018, at a meeting of the Parish Council’s Administrative-Finance Committee Wednesday.
“Just as a reference the year before we had nine findings therefore we do see improvement with the continued continuity of staff in the administrative office,” Moos said.
About two years ago, Council members Wayne Ardoin, Harold Taylor and Ken Marks publicly pushed Parish President Bill Fontenot to hire Amanda Cain as finance director to bring order to the parish financial operation.
In a recent meeting, Taylor noted that Cain helped straighten out a “mess” in business operations.
One finding from the 2018 audit is a budget variance created when the parish airport did not receive an anticipated grant. An amendment to the budget is required when actual expenditures or revenues exceed 5%.
The other finding involves untimely cash deposits at St. Landry Parish Animal Control.
“Cash is being accumulated hand held for extended periods of time before being made available for deposit,” he audit stated.
The management response stated a holiday weekend delayed a deposit and two dates examined by auditors were before a weekly deposit requirement had been implemented.
In previous audits, the animal shelter has been the subject of findings for handling of cash, which included an incident where several thousand dollars was stolen over a weekend.
Moosa said there was an issue with complying with ethics rules that involved documentation of training not being on file.
Of five randomly selected employees-officials, documentation indicated only three of the employees completed one hour of ethics training in the fiscal year.
On the balance sheet side, the audit shows the General Fund ended the year with $2,094,459, an increase of $145,050 from the beginning balance.
Moosa said all of the fund categories showed a positive balance except for the Airport Maintenance Fund, which had a $24,000 deficit. But that deficit is half of what was it in the previous year. “So, it is headed in the right direction,” he said.
About $4 million was spent over revenues, but the excess was for road overlay and debt service and not operating expenses, he said.
