Elections are over and the Mississippi State Audit Department has released results of its most recent review of finances and his concerns with the handling of public money in Hinds County and finds from a recent audit of Coahoma County, too.
State Auditor Shad White announced this week the completion of the 2020 Hinds County Routine Annual Financial Audit.
“Hinds County has a lot of work to do,” said Auditor White. “Our typical audits of counties take 7-9 months,” said White. “This audit took 15 months – perhaps the longest it’s taken to do a county audit in my five years as Auditor.
“The reason is that Hinds County does not have adequate staff to respond to basic records requests,” White added. “That slowed the audit process tremendously.”
Hinds County’s audit was started in September of 2022.
“Because there are a small number of qualified staff handling all the finances of Hinds County, the county is not only slow to respond to requests, but it is a walking fraud risk,” said White. “The county needs to add competent staff in order to maintain its books more carefully.”
The Hinds County audit can be found by searching “Hinds County” on the State Auditor’s website under the “Reports” tab.
Audits of local schools, municipalities and counties across Mississippi can also be found on the State Auditor’s website.
The Coahoma County audit on file with the Mississippi Audit Department revealed 11 finding or concerns of private auditors hired to review county finances, accounting procedures and oversight of tax dollars. These finding violate state law at some level. These findings are reported to the State Auditor Shad White and if he thinks they are serious enough they are reported to State Attorney General Lynn Fitch for prosecution. Findings can also be presented to the local district attorney for their review.
It should be noted Coahoma County has had three county administrators over the past four years and Chancery Clerk Carolyn Parham did not run for relection this year. The post is currently vacant and Coahoma County Supervisors are conducting a nationwide search to fill that post. The Chancery Clerk acts as the auditor of the county.
A new board of supervisors is expected to address these issues when they take office in January.
Findings from the most recent Coahoma County audit for 2020 are:
FINDING 1: Public Officials Should Ensure Compliance with State Law regarding the Inspection and Filing of Reports of Inspection of the Roads and Bridges in their Respective Districts.
Condition: During the course of our testing, we noted no certifications or affidavits from the supervisors indicating that they had inspected the roads and bridges in their districts.
FINDING 2: Public Officials Should Ensure Compliance with Countywide Personnel Administration by the County Administrator.
Condition: During the course of our testing, we noted that the Board had not spread an order on the minutes delegating authority of handling personnel matters to the county administrator.
FINDING 3: Public Officials and Employees should ensure compliance with state law over surety bonding requirements.
Condition: During the course of our testing we noted the following non-compliance:
• The Receiving Clerk was not bonded for the entire fiscal year.
• One (1) Assistant Receiving Clerk was not bonded for the entire fiscal year and one (1) Assistant Receiving Clerk was bonded for a dual position but should have had two separate bonds.
• Ten (10) employees only had a continuation certificate.
• One (1) deputy circuit clerk was not bonded for the entire fiscal year.
• A copy of the chancery clerk’s bond was not on file in the circuit clerk’s office.
• Tax Assessor/Collector is bonded as only the collector.
• One (1) deputy tax collector was bonded with the incorrect position and the name was misspelled; Two (2) deputy tax assessors were never bonded.
• One (1) deputy justice court clerk was not bonded for the entire fiscal year
FINDING 4: Deficit fund balances (This was a Repeat Finding)
Condition: We noted deficit fund balances at September 30, 2020. These deficit fund balances existed in the following funds:
• General County Trust Fund (002)
• Victim’s Assistance #2016-VA-GX-002 Fund (036) 83
• County Fire Protection Fund (115)
• Road Fund (150) • COVID-19 Fund (194)
FINDING 5: Re-Hired Retirees were not paid in compliance with the Form 4Bs filed with the Mississippi Employees Retirement System.
Condition: During fiscal year 2020, there were six (6) total re-hired retirees . Of the six (6), two (2) retirees were paid in excess of the allowed salary as reported on the filed Form 4B.
FINDING 6: Employee File Documentation.
Condition: During the course of our test work, we noted the following:
• Nine (9) instances of improperly executed or incomplete form I-9s
• One (1) instance of no board approved pay rate in the file
• One (1) instance of the pay rate in the file not matching the pay rate in the system
FINDING 7: Justice Court is not making settlements timely.
Condition: During the course of our test work, we found that four (4) of the twelve (12) monthly settlements to the County were not made in a timely manner.
FINDING 8: The Sheriff’s office is not performing reconciliations of the Special Narcotics Bank Account.
Condition: During the course of our test work, we noted that bank reconciliations were not being performed for the Special Narcotics Bank account.
FINDING 9: Public Officials Should Ensure Compliance with State Law over the Purchase of Information and Evidence.
Condition: During the course of our test work, we noted that the vouchers for payments to confidential informants were not being completed correctly.
FINDING 10: Public Officials Should Ensure Compliance with State Law over the Presentation of Meal Logs.
Condition: During the course of our test work, we noted that the Sheriff’s office is not presenting a meal log of prisoners being fed at the jail to the Board of Supervisors.
FINDING 11: The County does not adhere to its fixed assets policy for properly inventorying, tracking, locating, and monitoring fixed assets.
Condition: During our audit procedures, we found that the County failed properly tag, locate, describe, and classify certain fixed assets.
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