Pike County is facing the possibility of being placed on the state’s Do Not Pay list.
The Pike County Board was alerted to a number of errors that exist in the county’s fund status report. The errors in the report are a result of payroll expenditures not being reflected in the fund status report, according to Pike County Treasurer Scott Syrcle.
The Pike Press reports that the county’s fund status report isn’t properly deducting payroll expenses resulting in a $2.7 million difference between what’s actually in the fund and what the report reflects. Syrcle told the Pike County Board that the county’s new Paycom system is causing the problem where department heads can’t properly track department expenditures. WGEM reports that Paycom was put in place last year and is to blame for the incorrect reports.
In addition to the errors in this year’s fund status reports, Syrcle reported that the county’s financial audit from last year still cannot be conducted, because adjustments from last year still need to be made – including adjustments encouraged by last year’s auditors and budget amendments approved by the county board last November.
As a result of the ongoing accounting issues, last year’s financial audit of Pike County has still not been conducted.
If the audit is not completed by the end of August, the county faces the possibility of being placed on the state’s so-called “do not pay list,” which would stop many state payments to Pike County.
In the near term, if the audit isn’t completed, the county is also in danger of losing out on a USDA low-interest loan to finance the purchase of the county highway department’s new building.
County Clerk Natalie Roseberry was reported to be working on the payroll issues, which would not be done until mid-August – placing them beyond the state’s deadline. County Board President Jim Sheppard is reported to have said that the audit wouldn’t be conducted until September.
Syrcle criticized the switch of the county to the Paycom system to WGEM. The county’s former accounting system is said to have have its own issues and was costing taxpayer money, according to both Shepherd and Roseberry speaking to WGEM. Sheppard went on to say that the county’s payroll clerk left their position in the middle of Paycom training and there has been confusion over duties since.
The Pike Press further reports that property owners in Ross and Pleasant Hill townships were overcharged on this year’s property tax bill, as a result of an erroneous tax levy being applied to those properties. Syrcle indicated that taxpayers will be refunded the excess taxes paid at the end of December or beginning of January.