Harlan Kirgan
St. Landry Parish Government’s account balances are overwhelmingly in the black and the number of problems found in the 2016 audit are down from the 2015 audit.
Steven Moosa, CPA, of Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick, presented the 2016 audit to the Parish Council on Wednesday.
Moosa noted that of nine accounts, all but one have beginning and ending balances on the positive side.
Those funds and their ending balances are: General Fund, $1.8 million; Road and Bridge Maintenance Fund, $174,000; Health Unit Maintenance Fund, $955,000; Airport Maintenance Fund, -$104,000; Road District 1 Sales Tax Fund, $3 million; LCDBG Disaster Recovery Fund, $4,000; Road District 1 Construction Fund, $15 million; and Road District 1 Sinking Fund, $$2.5 million.
Bill Fontenot, parish president, said in mid-2016 the firm of Going, Sebastien was hired to help the government’s accounting staff clean up its procedures. And since then Amanda Cain, CPA, has been hired as a financial officer for Parish Government.
Of 14 findings in the 2015 audit, only two remain unresolved in the 2016 audit.
“As reflected in the audit our improvements in accounting and keeping track of things is much improved, Fontenot said. “I’m pleased to see that and I expected that.”
Cain has been cleaning up records and reconciling bank statements, he said.
“I’ll even have better methods for next year, which I’ll present in the next couple of months,” he said.
“One thing that is not improving is our ability, our resources for all of the necessities of the parish,” he said.
“We are going to be top-notch record keepers, OK. That we are going to be, but the record will show we are continually getting less resources,” he said.
Mandated expenses from offices such as the district attorney’s office, clerk of court, registrar of voters, assessor, some functions of the sheriff, are increasing, he said.
The mandated costs amounted to about $1.5 million, he said
Parish Government laid off 17 workers at the beginning of the year, he said, but the savings are are used in part to pay for rising mandated expenses.
The parish’s total revenues in 2016 were $22 million and after expenses the beginning balance for 2017 was $23.6 million.
The parish’s total assets of about $57.6 million includes buildings, roads and other infrastructure.
Major revenue sources include property taxes, $1.9 million; a sales tax for Road District 1 of $7.4 million; video poker, $572,000; and federal grants, $952,000.
The 2016 audit findings were:
—Inadequate controls at the parish animal control facility. The audit found 120 bags of dog food valued at at $4,800 were stolen. All proper authorities were notified and the theft is still under investigation.
— A complete accounting of receipt books could not be provided by animal control management. There was a two to three month period where receipt books could not produced, Moosa said. However, during the period cash deposits were being made.
“Cash deposits could not be reconciled to the original receipt books due to the inability of animal control management to provide auditors with all the receipt books pertaining to the fiscal year under audit,” the audit stated.
— Supplemental wages were paid during the year without withholding or paying related payroll taxes. The audit said five on-call nurses were paid a total of $12,575 without utilizing the proper payroll taxes and retirement contributions.
— Form 1099s were not issued where applicable in most cases. The audit stated unincorporated vendors and contractors who provide over $600 in services to the government should be issued a Form 1099 in accordance with IRS regulations.
— The parish failed to timely file sales tax reports for the Delta Grand.
— Payroll was approved for payment exceeding the amount indicated on employee timecards.
“We noted during our audit that the payroll records of a current employee did not support the compensation paid. We noticed 221 hours of annual time was paid in excess of amount indicated on the respective timecards. This discrepancy amounted to $5,677 in payments that could not be verified. The proper authorities have been notified in accordance with La. R.S. 24:523,” the audit stated.
The management response indicated all of the 2016 findings are being addressed.