News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Van Buren Budget Committee Vice Chairman Henry Seamons said the county is taking the necessary actions to resolve its audit findings.
“We’ve taken the right steps,” Seamons said. “We’re doing the right things. The communication is there. So, we just got to stick to this budget, and I feel like we can and that we will. And, this time next year, we will hopefully have a good report.”
The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office audit of the county ended on June 30. Auditors found nine findings with six repeats. One of those findings was an nonfunctional audit committee.
Seamons said the committee has since met to discuss the findings but getting commissioners to serve is a challenge.
“It is hard to find people that want to put in the time to do that, cause basically, they are working for free,” Seamons said. “And, we are limited in our small county to find people to be on any type of committee.”
Another finding against Van Buren was the county not having enough funds to complete the leasing to own contract of a solid waste truck. Seamons said he disagrees with this finding since owning the truck was never considered.
“We lease a truck for our solid waste, and they are kind of taking it like at the end of the two year lease, we do have the option to buy the truck if we want to, but we have no plans of buying it,” Seamons said. “We can either buy it or enter into another lease agreement. We have no intentions of buying it, but when you look at their findings, they’re showing they do not have enough money to buy the truck. Well, we are not wanting to buy the truck.”
Audit committee members receive weekly cash flow updates from the state.
