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State Auditor Yost puts Austintown on "unauditable" list
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Incomplete reconciliations prompted state Auditor Dave Yost to place Austintown Township on the “unauditable” list.
“Poorly maintained records create a lack of accountability,” Yost said. “Austintown Township must bring its records back to an auditable condition to complete the audit.”
As part of the regular audit of Austintown for Jan. 1, 2013, through Dec. 31, 2014, auditors determined that the condition of the township’s financial records is not adequate to finish the audit. In a letter to the township, the state auditor’s office notified officials the reconciliations were required to complete the audit.
Mike Dockry, Austintown administrator and road superintendent, said the township received that notice Monday.
He said township officials just have to finish completing reconciliation of the bank account with the computer accounting system.
“There is no bigger issue – as far as the public may think there is an issue of improper expenditure of money or monies missing. There is no issue like that,” Dockry said.
“It’s simply an accounting issue that we need to explain the difference between the checking-account balance that seems to be consistently higher than the [computer-software] balance,” he said.
He said there is $96 more in the bank account from January 2013, the first month of the state audit, than what the accounting system shows. Once that first discrepancy is reconciled, Austintown officials then can go to the next month and reconcile any differences.
“It is simply needing to explain a difference between the balance in the bank-account statements versus the balance in the computer system,” Dockry said. “Since the last audit, we have a lot more electronic [transactions], both deposits and payouts made. That can sometimes lead to us missing something ... if something is paid out and we don’t mark it. It’s paid out from the bank and maybe we missed it and didn’t mark it in the [computer] system.”
“Without these bank reconciliations, which they haven’t done for two years ... we don’t have an accurate picture of the township,” said Brittany Halpin, press secretary for Yost.
Micheal Kurish, former Austintown fiscal officer, resigned in early January 2012. Two months later, Laurie Wolfe was appointed as fiscal officer and won re-election in November 2013.
State officials spent three to four weeks in Austintown on the audit, Dockry said.
Within 90 days of the date of the letter, the township must revise its financial records and provide the necessary data. Failure to bring accounts, records and reports to an auditable condition may result in legal action, including the possibility of the attorney general’s issuing a subpoena to township officials to explain the condition of records. The attorney general also may file suit to compel the officials to prepare and/or produce the required information.
In regard to having to reconcile the situation within 90 days for the state, Dockry said, “I would expect that we would have this thing resolved way before then.”
The state auditor’s Local Government Section is available to township officials to assist in bringing records to an auditable condition. LGS provides a wide variety of services to local governments, including reconstructing financial records and aiding in the reconciliation of books.
An entity is removed from the “unauditable” list once the audit is completed and released to the public.