Few red flags in city, county audit reports

State audit reports for the city and county of Washington reveal few if any glaring issues, although the state auditor’s office has raised some concerns.

In both reports, auditors found no questionable expenditures, suspicious transactions or “instances of non-compliance.” The state did identify, however, a few deficiencies in each local government, such as issues with internal segregation of duties.

“In order to maintain proper internal control, duties should be segregated so the authorization, custody and recording of transactions are not under the control of the same employee,” a statement from the auditor’s office reads on both reports. “This segregation of duties helps prevent losses from employee error or dishonesty and maximizes the accuracy of the City's financial statements.”

The finding is very common, however, for small governments, and one local officials say is inevitable.

“We understand this concern and because of the structure of our office we are limited in what we can do,” a response statement from the Washington County Engineer’s office said. “We will continue to explore the possibility of others being involved with the opening and receipting of mail.”

Each report flagged several other routine topics, highlighting things like budget amendments and expenditures on businesses owned by city or county personnel, none of which reflected violations to state law, but which do have to be documented under it.

The state did identify a few issues, at the county level which the government has since taken action on, including a lack of documentation for ambulance rates, which the Board of Supervisors addressed in recent meetings.

The county also faced some deficiencies for the fiscal year ending in 2021 that were not noted the year prior. One of those was insufficient detail in the county’s ambulance claims.

“Ambulance personnel should work with Advanced Claims to produce a detailed listing of write-offs, collections, adjustments, etc. so that individual instances of these items can be evaluated,” the audit report said.

Ambulance Director Jeremy Peck’s response noted on the public record said the department was “working with Advanced Claims to produce a detailed report of above items.”

The report also outlined issues with the county’s credit card policy, an issue that did not come up in the FY 2020 audit. The state said the county needed itemized receipts attached to credit card statements.

“Lack of compliance with policies requiring proper supporting documentation could result in unallowable and/or unauthorized transactions and the opportunity for misappropriation,” the report said. “County is also unable to ensure credit card disbursements were incurred for allowable purchases that meet the public purpose criteria and public purpose.”

County Auditor Dan Widmer’s response statement said the office would address the issue moving forward.

“We will insist that department heads include an itemized receipt attached to the credit card statement to ensure all charges are for authorized purposes and meet public purpose criteria,” he said.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com