The Great Bend City Council Monday night learned the city received an “unmodified” opinion for its 2016, and voted to accept the findings report as presented.
The council’s Administration Committee met on June 15 to hear a report from Vickie Dreiling of Adams, Brown, Beran, and Ball regarding the Audit. Dreiling was also present Monday to answer any questions regarding the report.
“This is the highest opinion,” Dreiling said. They noted only one statutory violation and suggested the city require bid bonds for contractors on projects over $100,000.
And, she said, the city’s finances were well in order. “I didn’t have any major concerns over any of the funds.”
They also considered disagreements with management in regards to financial accounting, reporting or auditing matters, resolved or not, that could be significant to the financial statement or the auditors’ report. “We are pleased to report that no such disagreements arose during the course of our audit,” the firm’s governance letter reads.
Dreiling had attended a seminar and learned that cities were number two on the list as potential fraud targets. So, she did recommend that, in addition to the fraud and ethics policy the City currently has available to employees, an anonymous hotline reporting service be offered.
This would allow employees, vendors, and customers to anonymously report possible fraud, abuse, ethics, compliance and HR violations. “This would help protect the City by uncovering hidden business risks, improve your risk management and reinforce the ethical tone from the top.”
Audit recommendations repeated from previous year:
• Ambulance – a write-off policy should be developed and implemented. The department should continue to utilize the new software to help with these processes.
• Municipal Court – the court should include the check dates on the bank reconciliation so that it is easier to identify checks older than two years.
• Transfers – transfers of cash between funds should be recorded in a transfer in and transfer out line item. Each transfer should be budgeted appropriately and approved by the council.
• Inventory – an annual inventory should be completed by each department and turned in to the city clerk.
• Bank reconciliations and journal entries – all bank reconciliations and journal entries, including the municipal court, should be reviewed by someone other than the person preparing them. Bank reconciliations and journal entries should be initialed by the person reviewing them to document the approval. This has been resolved by the new city clerk.
• Other – the Capital Equipment Reserve Fund and the Capital Improvement Fund should not record donations into their funds per state laws. Donations should be recorded in the General Fund and then transferred to these funds.
