Northumberland audit shows room for improvement by school board

by Jackie Nunnery

HEATHSVILLE—A March 9 presentation of the county audit report to the Northumberland board of supervisors by Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates showed two material weaknesses according to Adam Duncan, senior accountant with the firm.

“We issued an unmodified opinion, which is the cleanest we could give on the financial statements, but we also had two material weaknesses that we discovered,” said Duncan.

The first is related to the reconciliation of school fund expenditures. According to the report, “expenditures per the school board did not reconcile to total school fund expenditures processed by the county treasurer.” Duncan said this is because “the school expenditure detail is maintained on an accrual basis while the county treasurer’s general ledger is on a cash basis.” The report recommends procedures be put in place to reconcile expenditure detail of the school fund to the records of the county treasurer on a monthly basis.

The second material weakness is due to missing documentation for some expenditures by the school board as well as overpayments being made “as balances forward were included with a payment without researching if the prior amount had been paid,” Duncan said. In the audit report it is mentioned that “the school board employed several different persons in the position of finance director over the past year which lead to inconsistencies in processing expenditures and retaining documentation.” Duncan added that finance director Tara Booth is aware of both situations and would be addressing them.

In addition to the material weaknesses, Duncan said there are four other points….