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Youngstown’s 2010 audit delayed for months
YOUNGSTOWN
A “series of problems in City Hall getting their financial information together” delayed state audit employees from conducting a thorough examination of Youngstown’s balance-sheet for the year 2010, said Ohio Auditor Dave Yost.
The city took “a long time” to provide auditors with needed information about the federal money it received and disbursed in 2010, he said.
Also, problems city officials had with a different computer financial-management system it put in service last year caused further delays, Yost said in response to an inquiry by The Vindicator about the annual report.
“When you have a new system, you run both for a while to make sure it goes smoothly,” Yost said. Problems with the new system “made it difficult for them to produce their financial reports.”
Based on the release dates of previous audits, the 2010 report should have been finished between February and April this year. The 2010 report will be made public by the end of this month, Yost said.
Also, the 2011 audit should be “done soon,” said Yost, who didn’t have a specific time frame.
City Finance Director David Bozanich said, “We are going through a conversion of our entire accounting system and that caused a minor delay with the audit.”
The city has been using both its old and new financial-management system, Bozanich said, but “we had delays in reconciling” the budget.
As for the delays in federal-money information, Bozanich said auditor employees didn’t mention anything about that to him.