The Barton Community College Board of Trustees received and approved an unqualified audit for the year ending June 30, 2014, when it met Tuesday. Accountant Vickie Dreiling from Adams, Brown, Beran and Ball explained that a “clean” or “unqualified” audit is the highest opinion the auditor can give.
The college has less cash but more assets than a year earlier, she said. Much of that can be attributed to the new student housing building. Dean of Administration Mark Dean noted that the college appeared to have more money after selling bonds for the new dorms, but it was always money that was earmarked for that building project.
The audit report does have some footnotes. Dreiling noted that in one instance, unclaimed property was not properly taken care of, which is a statute violation. She said she believed the matter is being corrected.
The auditors also made “five or six” recommendations in this  year’s governance letter — the letter where auditors suggest improvements in policies and procedures. For example, Dreiling said, “We recommend the cash drawer in petty cash be reconciled weekly.” Another recommendation was to take an annual inventory of all college credit cards.
Last year was ABB&B’s first year in a multi-year contract to conduct the college audit, and there were many more suggestions a year ago, Dreiling said. Overall, the process was “much smoother this year.”
Dean agreed. “There was a learning curve last year for both sides,” he said.
In addition to the audit to make sure the college is using “due diligence” and that its financial statements are fairly represented, there are audits on how the college handles its federal dollars. Dreiling said two audits, representing about $6 million of the $8.6 million in Barton’s federal expenditures, were conducted. They were also clean audits.
In other business Tuesday, the board heard reports on grant-funded programs and a monitoring report on meeting regional workforce needs.
Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman reported on the latest news from the Kansas Board of Regents, which is predicting another round of funding cuts from the state.
“We’ve been told to brace for a 3 to 4 percent rescission this year,” Heilman said. That will require the college to give up money previously agreed to and paid by the state.
The board also approved the following new hires: Kristina Adolf, enrollment specialist, and Olivia Seline, customer service representative, both at Fort Riley; and at the Barton Campus: Maggie Tracy, part-time agriculture instructor;  Kaitlin Ptacek, financial aid communications specialist; Kit Felke, secretary (Allied Health); and Amanda Moran-Jones, lead care provider at the day-care center.