by Geoff Fox
Hancock’s town budget received a clean bill of health during the annual financial audit. Cheryl Dodson of Albright, Crumbacker, Moull and Itell presented the audit results to town officials.
Dodson said the firm looks at where there are the most significant risks for a town, and then tailor the audit procedures to address those risks.
“I’ve never seen an audit that didn’t have them,” Dodson said.
There were no significant difficulties in Hancock’s budget audit, Dodson added.
One positive Dodson gave the town was the fiscal year 2023 audit looked “a lot better” than the fiscal year 2022.
Dodson told town officials there were some increases in the town’s capital interests such as purchasing new equipment, the membership interest in Harvest/Trulieve going up, purchasing Weavers, and pension changes.
When looking at the income statements for water, sewer, and sanitation, Dodson said the service charges should cover the operating costs.
The operating income for sewer and sanitation both suffered losses in fiscal year 2023. The operating revenue were not enough to cover operating costs.
The only reason the water fund wasn’t at a loss was due to operating grant revenue for water meters.
All three net incomes for those funds were at a loss, except for a grant income in the sewer funds, which is a misnomer as it is a non-operating cost.
“Just something to keep an eye on when you’re considering your rates,” Dodson said.
On Monday, Town Manager Mike Faith said there was a prior year gain on assets from a sale of a property, which isn’t expected to repeat on future audits.
“We’re not going to do that every year, obviously,” he said.
Expenditures were up 19%, which Faith said was due to the $10,000 grant program the town had last summer for business owners in town who wanted to refurbish or open a business.
Faith said the program may come back in the future, but no decision has been made as it takes time to refill the coffers with the money from Trulieve partnership.
One of the things Faith said the auditing firm wanted the town to do was more housekeeping type things, such as more control on employee time cards.
The process right now for town employees is the employee punches in and out on the time clock and the employee and a supervisor initial it.
Faith said the firm wants him to do is also initial the time cards as well.
One thing Dodson noted for the town was an invoice from a few years ago.
Faith said a company did some work for the town and never billed them at that time. Some time after that, the company realized the town never paid, so they sent an invoice.
Faith checked the system and verified the work and paid the bill with a document to the town secretary to pay the bill.
To start the process of the audit, the town hires a firm to prepare for the audit and then hires another firm to perform the audit.
Dodson was at Town Hall for a few weeks as she did the audit, sometimes staying until four or five in the evening, testing the town’s systems and reviewing financial documents.
“I’m really impressed with the detail,” Faith said. “I feel like whenever she’s done, wow, we should be good.”
Faith said if there was anything wrong with any of the town’s finances, there would be no way it would get by Dodson and her firm.
Once the audit documents finalized, which should be within the next week, Faith said they would be available for the public to come in and view them.
