2011 Management Letter to Boone County: Will any of the criticisms be corrected? See how few were corrected from 2010.

The auditors are currently looking at the books.  How many of these criticisms will be corrected?  Was something really done to correct these problems?  We will find out in June when the new audit is received.

Only two of the situations that following were  corrected.

Boone County proposes spending $7000-$14,000 for aid in closing its books

In addition to its regular auditing fees to the auditing firm, Boone County is negotiating with another accounting firm to prepare the the closing statements for the auditing firm to begin the audit.  Such closing statements are the responsibility of management.

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Boone County’s Management Letter from the Auditing Firm grows to eleven pages

Last year I posted the seven page letter regarding accounting conditions and recommendations for Boone County Government. (http://boonecountywatchdog.blogspot.com/2011/09/boone-county-receives-seven-page.html)

Based upon this year’s management letter it appears that few of the recommendations have been carried out despite management promises.  Judge for yourself.

2010 Management                2011 Management Letter                                   Letter    

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Page 2                                      Page 2

Page 3                                        Page 3

Page 4                                        Page 4

Page 5                                         Page 5

Page 6                                         Page 6

Page 7                                     Page 7a

Page 7 through 13 of the 2011 report restates each of the 2010 comments and supplies a current status.   For the most part the conditions have not been resolved.

Is the county board aware that these conditions should not exist?

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

Boone County Government Audit is available

The CPA Audit for the fiscal year ending November 30, 2010 is now available on the county website.  You can download it at:  http://www.boonecountyil.org/sites/default/files/Audit2010.pdf

 

The normal link for the report is shown below, apparently the link for the 2010 Audit was inadvertently left off when the report was posted:

 

One important question which our citizenry should ask is regarding the controversial sales tax for the county jail.  Many of us thought that tax would end when the jail bonds are retired in 2018.  However footnote 5, page 25 of the audit indicates that the county has pledged the Public Safety Sales Tax until the 2008 Bonds which paid for the building of the county administration building are paid,that is 2028.   Possibly that is just an error if not, so much for the promise to end that tax in a timely manner.

Boone County’s 2010 Audit was due June 1, 2011—Was Boone County granted an extension?

In 2008 Boone County did not provide its CPA audit for the fiscal year ending November 30, 2007 until August 20, 2008.  The public and board members did not have an opportunity to review that document until even later.  Since then I have made a personal effort to insure the audit is timely.  Boone County’s budget has annual appropriations of  less than $30,000,000 yet their annual audit was not timely in 2008 and has meet state requirements since then, only through specially requested extensions.

As set forth in 55 ILCS 5/6-31003

The audit shall commence as soon as possible after the close of each fiscal year and shall be completed within 6 months after the close of such fiscal year, unless an extension of time is granted by the Comptroller in writing. Such extension of time shall not exceed 60 days.

Boone County’s audit for the year ending November 30, 2010 should be available June 1, 2011, unless a 60 day extension is obtained.  Below is the answer I received to my request to review the audit. 

After you read the letter below—do you believe that the Illinois Office of the Comptroller is  “unable to generate the approval letter” for the extension?  Assume that the Comptroller wanted to grant the extension-- can it be granted without the Comptroller writing an extension letter?  Should the public, the CPA firm or the county accept this situation?

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