PIKE CO. BOC CALLED MEETING ON AUDIT 4/20/20

The Pike County Board of Commissioners held its Special Called Meeting on Monday, April 20, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. in the Courthouse, Main Courtroom, at 16001 Barnesville Street, Zebulon.

Chairman Briar Johnson convened the meeting and Commissioners Tim Daniel, Tim Guy, Jason Proctor and James Jenkins attended. County Manager Ron Alexander, County Attorney Rob Morton and County Clerk Angela Blount were also present.

1. CALL TO ORDER ...................................................... Chairman Briar Johnson
2. INVOCATION……………………………………………..Silent Invocation
3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ....................................... Chairman Briar Johnson
4. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
(1)) Motion/second by Commissioners Daniel/Guy to approve, motion carried 5-0. Chairman Briar Johnson thanked Pam Thompson who was present at the meeting. Pam Thompson is seeking re-election as Clerk of Superior Court.
5. MARK HARDISON FROM THE ACCOUNTING FIRM CLIFTON, LIPFORD, HARDISON & PARKER, LLC TO PRESENT THE ANNUAL AUDIT OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF PIKE COUNTY FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2019.

Mark Hardison of Clifton, Lipford, Hardison & Parker, LLC addressed the Board regarding the annual audit stating the financial statements are the responsibility of management and it is the responsibility of the auditors to express an opinion on the financial statements. Based on the audit, the Auditors are able to express an unmodified report (clean opinions) on the financial statements. As of June 30, 2019 total assets were $2,959,421 million dollars, liabilities were $309,513 and deferred inflows of resources (property taxes) were $161,506 for a total fund balance of $2,488,402 million dollars.

There were 5 non- major Special Revenue Funds for FY 2019; include, Law Library Fund, State Seizure Fund, Federal Seizure Fund, Drug Abuse Treatment Fund and Juvenile Court Fund. There were 3 non-major Capital Projects Funds for FY 2019; include, Jail Construction Fund, Capital Improvements Fund and LMIG Fund. Mark Hardison stated there were 4 Financial Statement Findings for the year.

 1. Accounts Receivable/Revenue - Various revenue items were not recorded in the proper fiscal year period. Audit adjustments were necessary to fairly state and classify revenues for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019.

 2. Accounts Payable/ Expenditures – The County does not have adequate accounting procedures to ensure that expenditures are recorded and properly classified when a liability is incurred. Material audit adjustments were required to fairly state and classify expenditures for the year ended June 30, 2019.

 3. Control Procedures over Bank Reconciliations – During fiscal year 2019, monthly bank reconciliations were not agreed to their general ledger control accounts. Accounting procedures were not performed to reconcile differences between bank reconciliations and general ledger control accounts. As a result, errors in the bank reconciliations were not detected until the year-end audit procedures.

 4. Management of Due To/From Accounts – The County did not monitor interfund receivable And payable accounts on a monthly basis and did not make the appropriate settlements between funds. At year end, the County had not settled the interfund balances between the General Fund Receivable and the E911 Fund and Jail Construction Fund Payable Fund. Mark Hardison stated there is an E911 Certification Report that the Chairman will need to sign. The audit has not yet been send to the state. Once the E911 Certification Report has been executed, the audit can be uploaded to the state. Hardison stated he appreciated the support from the County Manager, Ron Alexander, staff and the constitutional officers.

Chairman Briar Johnson asked if the findings are categorized as major or minor. Hardison stated the findings can be significant and material, because of the dollar amount of the E911 that would be material. County Manager Ron Alexander stated he appreciated what our auditors do for us and noted they work very well with staff and have been very beneficial with on this audit.

County Attorney Rob Morton asked Hardison when he spoke with County Manager, Ron Alexander, and Tara Winstead in February, did Tara give any indication as why she was not involved in the process with the year end as far as the reconciliation, etc. Morton noted as far as he understood that would have been something that was involved in house and with Tara. Hardison stated that with the bank reconciliatons in the prior year were done by her. She did not give a response as to why she was involved in anything after that. It seemed as if some of her duties were scaled back.

Morton stated that for a time some of her services were done in house. Hardison stated that they were not aware that transpired until after the fact.

The problem started back in February and extended into the current year. County Manager Alexander stated that Tara is back to doing the bank reconciliations at this time.

Motion/second by Commissioners Jenkins/Daniel to receive the annual audit report and authorize the Chairman to sign the E911 Certification report, motion carried 5-0.

6. ADJOURNMENT Motion/second by Commissioners Guy/Proctor to adjourn at 5:58 p.m., motion carried 5-0.