State audit finds financial problems in Glouster
By Jim Phillips
November 17, 2008
Glouster Village Clerk Jan Browning said Friday that she had not yet had a chance to read a newly released state audit on Glouster’s finances.
The audit includes 10 negative findings against the village, and suggests Glouster should consider being put under a state “fiscal watch,” based on the size of the negative balance in its general fund.
Jan Browning, who took over the clerk’s office last year, suggested that a lot of the problems reflected in the audit “came from a previous clerk, and I have really had to do a lot of cleaning-up work.”
The report, issued last week by Ohio Auditor of State Mary Taylor, covers 2006 and 2007. It finds the village ended 2007 with a deficit in its general fund of $16,954, suggesting that money from that fund was improperly used to cover the expenses of some other village fund or funds.
In the second finding, the report recommends that village officials should consider writing to the auditor’s office, to determine whether a written declaration of fiscal watch is needed, based on the deficit funding.
“In addition, the village should develop and implement a financial plan of corrective action,” it adds.
If an Ohio municipality is placed in fiscal watch, the Auditor of State may provide technical and support services to it, at state expense. A more serious condition is “fiscal emergency,” which requires creation of a commission to develop a plan to improve the municipality’s finances.
Other findings against the village include claims that it:
• kept inadequate payroll records;
• failed to always certify that funds were available before committing to purchases;
• failed to get amended budget certificates when actual revenues didn’t match projected revenues;
• disbursed more money than it appropriated in the general, street, park and street levy funds;
• failed to properly post receipts and disbursements;
• inaccurately posted appropriations and estimated receipts to the accounting system and reconcile them to the amounts approved by the village budget commission;
• improperly disbursed out-of-sequence checks in cases where there were insufficient funds; and
• failed to accurately reconcile bank and book balances on a monthly basis.
The audit also indicates that the village officials have not provided responses to the Auditor’s Office on any of the findings in the report.
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