Police Jury audit 2007 - findings addressed

The 2007 audit of the Vermilion Parish Police Jury was presented by Rob Carter of the local accounting firm, Kolder, Champagne, Slaven and Company, the highlights of the findings were given to the jury at the Finance Committee meeting.

The audit consists of the period from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 and detailed the financial activities of the entity.

According to the audit summary the jury total assets for 2007 are $58,851,660 and compared to 2003 which showed $31,384,174 shows a gain of $27,467,486.

Total expenditures for 2007 was $27,117,282 compared to 2003 where expenditures were $22,026,900.

Carter highlighted several other items.

“As you are aware, not only to we come in and look at the financial reporting, but we look at the internal controls of the police jury’s administrative accounting departments.”

The audit looks at Louisiana and Federal compliance issues should they come up.

There are, according to Carter, some control and compliance findings in the audit.

The first finding is new for 2007 and states that the entity must have someone on staff to generate audits. This is not currently the practice.

The second deals with employees providing a variety of duties that hinder the practice of checks and balances.

“It gives the opportunity for collusion or theft, but we’ve never found anything to suggest that,” Carter added.

In 2007 a parishwide Capital Maintenance Plan was not submitted, however a five year plan beginning in 2008 will eliminate that finding for the next audit.

The next findings were overpaying or compensation for absences, not having a cooperative endeavor agreements and a lack of a policy and procedure manual.

Carter expressed that he felt with the corrective actions that have been put in place by the newest jury and administrative staff that these issues would be corrected by the 2008 audit.

Carter revealed in his audit summary that the jury is currently working in the black, or within the budget to provide its services to the residents of the parish.

With recent concerns about recurring costs (regular cost incurred repeatedly, or for each item produced or each service performed) since the jury granted pay raises for parish employees, the findings of the 2007 budget serve as a marker for the Finance Committee to move forward and compare past budget and investigate the status of the 2008 budget.

The recurring costs that are a concern to some jurors are in the ballpark of $600,000. The raises that started with an increase for CDL drivers at the solid waste facility prompted jurors to take the idea to other workers, which resulted in the increase of costs.

“If we are going to do this for some, we have to do it for all.” Juror Errol Domingues stated at a past meeting.

“It has to be fair.”

After the presentation of information, Finance Committee Chairman Nathan Granger requested for 2008 that quarterly audits be conducted so the committee can keep abreast of where the finances are going on a regular basis.

“We would like to at least have a review quarterly,” Granger stated.

“Recently we’ve done a lot of spending. I want us to be on course, something to give us a wake up call.”