City close to catching up on late audits

City close to catching up on late audits

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The city of Philadelphia could be caught up with its annual audits by the end of September, according to auditors.

Aldermen learned last September that the city had not completed an audit since Fiscal Year 2017.

Windham and Lacey, PLLC, an auditing firm from Pearl, was hired in October to catch the city up. They have been hired to do the fiscal year audits for 2018, 2019 and 2020. 

FY 2021 won’t come due until later this year.   The FY 2018 audit was completed in February, and the FY 2019 audit was turned in during last Tuesday’s board meeting.

“We are starting to move along pretty well,” said auditor Tom Windham. “This is the 2019 audit. The 2020 audit is fast on the heels. Our goal is to get the 2021 audit out by the end of September. Sometimes your best plans don’t come together but we are going to do our best. It’s a process.”

Windham said the FY 2019 had two finds and the mayor and aldermen were aware of both. First, it was late. The second issue dealt with a report on accounts receivable fines in the Municipal Court that could not be produced by the computer system. This was discovered while the FY 2018 audit was being done. It will come up again in the FY 2020 and FY 2021 audits, officials said. Employees received training in February on how to generate the report.

“We didn’t have any findings except for incuring the revenue from the fines, like last time. And we are resolving that,” said Windham.

The board voted to accept the audit. It will be forwarded to the state Auditor’s Office.

In other actions, aldermen voted to:

• Approve a motion by Ward 2 Alderman Jim Fulton to re-appoint Andy King to Philadelphia Utilities Board for another five-year term;

• Approve the purchase of a bulldozer from Puckett Machinery at state contract price and finance with lowest possible rate for the Sanitation Department. This was a planned purchase for later in the year. Aldermen moved on the purchase when they learned a dozer had become available and could be delivered in the next few weeks;

• Approve Arthur Breakfield of Animal Control attending a training course;

• Approve a street light at 1110 Tank Street; and,

• Accept the resignation of Peyton George and Chris Harrell from the Police Department. Aldermen then voted to hire Patrick Mitchell and Melissa Shackelford as police officers.






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