State Audit On Jackson Co. Found Eight Findings

A state audit found eight findings against Jackson County with three regarding financial statements within the mayor’s office.

The State Comptroller’s report released Monday found a required adjustment to the county’s general fund. Mayor Randy Heady said some $490,000 of receivables were placed in the wrong ledger.

“What happened was the receivables were put in, and then, we just failed to go in and mark those off when they came in,” Heady said. “It was just a journal entry to correct, which we did, and all of that is taken care of now. We actually received the money. We just didn’t remove the money from being received.”

According to the report, two reoccurring findings were found. Some payroll accounts were not being reconciled, purchasing procedures lacked documentation and expenditures were misclassified.

Heady said payroll findings should be answered overtime as the county has reduced payroll deductions from 26 to 24.

“It has been a finding for a while,” Heady said. “It is just where you take withholdings out. It is employee checks. That account is not being reconciled. It is old stuff. We have worked diligently in the last year to make sure everything is straight and accounted for. It is just a matter of getting in there and having the time to correct those old mistakes.”

Heady said the county is making progress on the deficiencies by focusing on purchase orders.

“That has been a very hard thing to get a hold of,” Heady said. “I will say this. The elected officials in the county have been very cooperative in trying to reduce the deficiencies. The deficiencies would be I have to go, you have a vehicle to tear up, or you have to book an overnight stay or maybe you need something for your office and you need it right then and you purchase it. The issue is we are going to pay that bill, but you did not call and get a PO number before doing it. We really worked hard on getting that cleared up and getting people back in getting compliant with this purchasing procedure.”

Heady said he is working with multiple third parties to address the unresolved issues.

“I have had other entities to come help,” Heady said. “CTAS is a great piece that is somebody who really comes in and helps us a lot. Ben Rogers with CTAS and all the folks at CTAS have came in to help with the payroll ledger reconciliation. The Comptroller’s office with the local auditors have also came in and helped with better understanding on what we need to do to make sure we get these things cleared up.”

The other five findings were in the county clerk’s office. Two of those came when former Clark Amanda Stafford stole funds from the county earlier this year.