Audit Delayed
Before budget discussion at last night's Selectmen's meeting, Town Administrator, Bob Markel discussed some of the issues with auditing the books for FY 13 and FY 14.
FY 13 needs to be audited first. The audit firm that we have hired has asked for some preliminary documents from FY 13 in order to begin the audit. The documents that we have for FY 13 are not in shape for the auditors to perform the audit. The auditors estimate it would take between 750 and 1,000 hours to get the books in shape to begin the audit. The auditors can NOT audit their own work.
The cost estimate for this type of work is in the $70,000 - $80,000 range. Templeton does NOT have this kind of money to get the books in order for an audit. One possibly, was to make a request to DOR to certify some Free Cash for this fiscal year FY 15 in order to get this work done quickly so the audit could be done. The DOR will NOT certify any Free Cash for Templeton until the FY 13 audit is done. Anyone see a problem with this?
It was decided to have our new accountant work on the FY 13 books to get them into shape for the audit. The accountant's hours will be increased to 40 hours /week in order to get the job done. This will postpone the audit for a while.
More on this later....
if we back up a bit.....it is my understanding that the Town books of FY13 were closed and accepted by the DOR. I believe this work was finally completed by a former town accountant with some help from current Town treasurer / collector kate Meyers. Also involved was a representative from the Carol Coppola firm which the BOS voted to hire to help with Treasurer / accountant work, his name is Matt Angel. Now if the FY13 books were closed and okayed by DOR, perhaps these two can be brought before the Templeton BOS and explain all this to us. On another front, I am still waiting for the check of $12.50 which the BOS voted to refund to me. Since the Town accountant will now be busy doing this work, perhaps the assistant can do the public records work at a cheaper rate! Perhaps it is time to put the welcome wagon stuff on the shelf and concentrate on town business. Maybe we could transfer money from dispatch salary to pay for the bookkeeping work and use the 911 grant monies to pay the dispatch salaries as was done in the past! Might have to kick that can down the road one more time.
ReplyDeleteIt sure does look like the well is dry. I don't know what to think of the DOR ? The same representative was overseeing the town since the Columbus/Skelton era, and when Scott Sawyer was our accountant. Why wasn't this problem with our finances uncovered then ? I do believe today's problems go back that far. When I say you can borrow from Peter to pay Paul, but someday both Peter and Paul will be broke !! Then what ?? Oh yes, that brings us to where we are today !! Gee, it almost makes me think someone planned for this day to come. Just my opinion, and it will come out in the wash. Bev.
DeleteIt sure does look like the well is dry. I don't know what to think of the DOR ? The same representative was overseeing the town since the Columbus/Skelton era, and when Scott Sawyer was our accountant. Why wasn't this problem with our finances uncovered then ? I do believe today's problems go back that far. When I say you can borrow from Peter to pay Paul, but someday both Peter and Paul will be broke !! Then what ?? Oh yes, that brings us to where we are today !! Gee, it almost makes me think someone planned for this day to come. Just my opinion, and it will come out in the wash. Bev.
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