The Village of South Jacksonville received a clean opinion on their financial audit for the past fiscal year.
Kristi Corpin of Eck, Schaefer & Punke LLP presented the audit to the Village Board of Trustees last Thursday night saying that overall things are in financial order.
Corpin noted that a few findings from the previous year’s audit remain, but are in the process of being fixed. Namely, the village’s accounts are being switched from a cash-based system that was called “antiquated” by several members on the board. New accounting software is switching things to an accrual-based system in accordance with more modern accounting practices acceptable by state auditors. The other continued finding was the amount of internal controls within the office.
Treasurer and Office Manager Mindy Olson says that prior to the completion of the audit she issued a letter to the auditors noting an action plan to fix several of the internal control concerns. She says many of them have already been put in place or are in the process of being done: “The changes are ongoing. One of the new procedures has already been put in place. It occurred because of an account that was set up for receipt of the Foreign Fire Tax into a bank account that was initially left off of the village’s books. That has been corrected. We’ve also corrected some material items that she pointed out, but those are normal things for audits, especially with a municipality of our size. All of the internal controls have been addressed and new procedures are already moving forward.”
Corpin said that the internal control findings are always looked at to ensure there is no malfeasance with a village’s funds are being committed or there is no fraud being committed.
Olson says that internal controls can sometimes be a challenge for municipalities the size of South Jacksonville because of the small number of employees: “Yes, it’s always a finding in smaller-sized villages, townships, etc. where you don’t have that many people to separate the duties. We’re fortunate that we are able to have a board that works with us, and we can fall back on them if we need to.”
Olson says last year’s finding of board minutes not being kept up-to-date dropped off this year after she and Village President Dick Samples have split the duties of Village Clerk since the office has remained vacant and no one has filed to fill the position which is due for election in April.