There's a separate post and a draft copy of the Community School Audit report coming online shortly -- but I've been overwhelmed with emails about this doozy...
Last April, the Community School's auditor came before the School Committee and explained that he could not certify their Balance Sheet because their cash balance did not match the cash balance on the Town Accountant's ledgers. Although the Town Accountant reconciled cash to the bank each month, the Community School never reconciled their cash balance to the Town. This is very poor internal control and could easily allow errors to remain undetected. This issue was discussed at great length that evening.
This week, almost 5 months later, the Auditor returned with a draft report and, again, discussed the fact that the cash balances don't match. Mrs. Linehan, however, appeared startled/confused and says, "Cash, you mean like dollars ... or checks?"
It's bad enough that she doesn't know what "cash" is -- but she apparently had no comprehension of the prior discussion when the serious internal control flaw was first discussed.
Forget the $30 million budget, forget the $2.5 million deficit, forget the impending lay-offs, and forget the serious internal control flaws --- let's talk about some more copier contracts !!
2 comments:
If this flaw was identified last april why was checks and balances put right into place to correct the prolbem. Seems to me ita an easy fix
I have no idea if the process has changed yet -- the original discussion with the school committee happened on April 28 at the end of the last term.
I would expect that question would be answered at the next meeting when the Committee discusses the audit report again.
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