Winchester gets clean audit report for 2019
Published 9:58 am Thursday, January 23, 2020
Members of the Winchester Board of Commissioners heard a presentation Tuesday by Thomas S. Sparks, a certified public accountant, on the city’s audit for the 2019 fiscal year that ended June 30.
“This is an unmodified opinion, which is a clean report,” Sparks said. “We did not find any evidence of misappropriations.”
His firm’s management letter did include recommendations for strengthening internal controls and operating efficiencies.
Some examples included:
— Grant project files for some ongoing and completed projects could not be found.
— Bank reconciliations for the month of June were not reviewed in a timely manner.
— Payroll withholding transactions were not posted in a timely manner.
— Several purchases were made before purchase orders were prepared.
— Several invoices were not paid within 30 days.
– A few invoices did not have supporting documentation.
– It was recommended that the city review purchasing policies and procedures with department heads and others.
– The auditors noted that some capital assets surplus transactions approved in 2018 were again approved in 2019.
– It was discovered that a tax abatement granted had not been recorded in the general ledger.
The city’s financial statements showed its total assets had declined from 2018 by more than $1.2 million to $24.9 million. Total liabilities increased about $733,000, much of that was as a result of increased pension costs.
Total revenue in 2019 decreased about $95,000 to $19.7 million. Sparks noted that the city did not have as much grant money as in prior years, and the decrease in grants offset increased tax income. Spending increased by about $1.9 million, which is also largely related to the increasing cost of the city’s share of the County Employee Retirement System funding.
In other business, the commission:
– approved a number of changes to the 2019 budget.
– approved a display the city’s logo on video boards during the 10th Region girls and boys basketball 40th District tournaments at George Rogers Clark High School’s new gymnasium.
– approved the transfer of a 2008 Ford Crown Victoria to the Clark County Board of Education to be used by a school resource officer.
– appointed Meredith Guy to fill the unexpired term of Drew Graham on the Winchester Historic Preservation Commission.
— appointed Joseph Miller to fill the unexpired term of Lisa Vincent on Main Street Winchester’s board.
– approved an order funding from the Downtown Development Investment Fund for revitalization of properties downtown in the form of roof stabilization grants for three buildings.
– approved a street light at 118 Linden Ave.
– approved orders to hire Tonya Judy, Travis Ashcroft, Jessica Jones and Tyler Palfrey as communications officers, and to reclassify three others, Jansen Thomas, Mesha Daniel and Adam Wilson.