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STAMFORD – A long-awaited audit report details repeated failures by the city to keep its books.
The 2022 report, which was scheduled to be submitted to the state more than a year ago, has finally been completed. It will finally be presented to the Stanford Finance Committee for review next week.
RSM, a contracted independent auditor, details the city’s finance department’s problems and lists the reasons for each case under the heading “Causes.”
- “Lack of effective controls over financial reporting and inadequate review of general ledger balances.”
- “Internal controls requiring reconciliation and review of financial statements failed to identify errors.”
- “Subsidy management and reporting is not centralized and is left to each department. Management and department heads are not familiar with grant accounting.”
- The purchasing department checks the backgrounds of vendors before contracting them on federally funded projects, but “does not maintain formal documentation that this process has taken place.”
- “The city did not have internal controls in place to ensure that state and federal grant reports were submitted.”
Under the heading “Impact,” RSM auditors explain how financial planning deficiencies have harmed the city, or are likely to harm it in the future.
- “Management does not have accurate financial information on which to base its business decisions.”
- “Lack of proper reporting” jeopardizes future state and federal grant awards.
- Accounting balances for government and capital projects from 2021 had to be “recalculated.”
- By not documenting background checks on contractors, cities could lose government funding.
- Failure to submit project progress reports may result in state or federal agencies canceling grant funding or refusing to provide “reimbursement of grant expenditures.”
Connecticut requires all municipalities to have independent auditors examine their books annually and submit an audit called an annual comprehensive financial report.
In the Stanford University report, RSM auditors wrote that good internal controls ensure that the accounts are “regularly reconciled with underlying documentation and thoroughly reviewed by supervisory employees.” .
But that’s not happening at Stanford.
The report said RSM’s accountants identified more than 125 adjustments that needed to be made to reports prepared by city finance officials during the audit. According to the report, the adjustments were made until last month.
“A large number of premature adjusting entries resulted in significant delays and inefficiencies in the audit,” the report said. “Significant audit reconciliation was required across multiple funds,” including property tax accounts, accounts receivable, loan receivables, accounts payable, unearned revenue accounts, intergovernmental revenue and expenditures.
RSM auditors say weak financial controls allow for inaccurate financial information, leading to poor management decisions.
Internal controls “should provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of the financial reporting process,” they write.
But the report says it turned out to be sloppy at Stanford.
Among the adjustments the independent auditor had to make was a $15.7 million increase in liability related to mold remediation.
In the fall of 2018, mold was discovered inside the school building after an unusually rainy and humid summer. City and school administrators scrambled to make fixes, including removing mold, repairing water-infested roofs, windows and walls, and replacing sheetrock, as well as creating outdoor spaces for classrooms while construction progressed. Borrowed.
Administrator Ben Burns, who oversees the Office of Management and other departments that handle city finances, said the costs were much higher than officials had expected.
“Our estimate of the total liability related to mold remediation was too low, so we revised it upward by $15.7 million,” said Burns, who was not a director at the time of the mold scandal.
One of the adjustments was misclassifying assets as “under construction” when in fact they were buildings, improvements, and equipment that were already in use and were being depreciated. It involved $18.5 million worth of assets.
The adjustment will affect the city’s property values, but not the city’s budget, Burns said.
“Some projects were not placed in service when they were completed years ago, so they were not accumulating depreciation against the value of the building on the date of completion,” Burns said.
The auditor also found that unearned revenue was overstated by $3.1 million. Passive revenue refers to grants and other payments received by the City prior to construction, renovations, programs, and other funding.
“In this case, it involves federal stimulus funds that were provided in advance with the condition that the funds be reported on the funds spent on covered activities,” Burns said.
By the end of the previous fiscal year, “some funds had not yet been expended on eligible activities, so the related revenue would be considered ‘unearned,'” Burns said. “Our original financial statements did not accurately quantify the penalty amount.”
The City of Stamford’s 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report includes the City’s corrective action plan to implement better management.
The four-page plan states that David Yanik, who served as city administrator for 12 years, will retire March 1.
The plan also states that Yanik or his successor will implement policies and ensure that an employee is assigned to reconcile all important accounts on a monthly or quarterly basis. Clearly communicate staff assignments, deadlines, and documentation standards. Ensure account adjustments are reviewed by a supervisor. and other measures.
Achieving these goals “may require redeployment or addition of accounting staff,” the plan states. “The review of staffing levels and distribution will be completed prior to the Mayor’s budget being presented to the Finance Committee and the House of Representatives in March,” the plan states.
Mr. Burns is scheduled to present his newly completed 2022 audit report to the Finance Committee on Thursday, January 11 at 7 p.m. View the Zoom meeting here.
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