Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Section II- Findings: 4-2014 Material Weakness

(Taken directly from the audit- items in parentheses are mine alone)

Material Weakness:

Criteria: Cash balances and the corresponding restricted fund balance should be reported on the County's financial statements.
Condition: The Governmental Fund Balance Sheet is not correctly stated as a result of seventeen depository accounts for which the County is a custodian of not being reported.
Context: A review of all the bank accounts confirmed identified cash balances not being carried on the County's financial statements. The cash balance confirmed totaled $223,983.
Cause: Cash reconciliations are not being prepared which would agree cash balances to the general ledger.
Effect: The County's financial statements would be misstated without the inclusion of these seventeen depository accounts and the restricted fund balances (restricted fund balances include things such as bonds, monies earmarked for certain purposes, etc)
Recommendation: An internal control framework should be established for these seventeen cash balances that includes a reconciliation to the general ledger resulting in the reporting of restricted fund balances to the County for inclusion in the financial statements.

(Notice by now the recurring theme of "internal control frameworks". Let me point out again that this is the responsibility of your County officials to create, implement and follow updated policies. The monies referred to here are there and untracked. And have been.)


No comments: