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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Houston County received
a relatively clean bill of health from the state Auditorís Office at
the Dec. 27 county board meeting. While there were no glaring errors in
the countyís bookkeeping system, there were a number of procedures and
policies the state would like to see changed.
Carla Blahnik, of
the state Auditorís Office, spent about a half hour discussing some of
the issues that arose while conducting the 2006 audit report. Some of
the issues Blahnik went over, which were part of the Summary of
Auditorís Results included:
ïIn Houston County, the treasurer
does the purchasing of investments for the county. Investments are not
reviewed or approved by anyone other than the person doing the
investing. The state Auditorís Office recommended someone other than
the person who makes the investment purchase periodically review
investment purchases. The investments should be reviewed for both
legality and appropriateness.
ïHouston County has an informal
disaster recovery agreement with another county, but does not have a
formal disaster recovery plan. A disaster recovery plan gives assurance
the county is prepared for a disaster or major computer breakdown. The
county needs to provide services to county residents after a disaster
and during a major computer breakdown. Services that need to be
addressed include the continuance of several important applications
processed by its computer system, including the preparation of payroll,
the calculation of tax assessments, and settlements, and the recording
of receipts and disbursements.
ïA control deficiency exists
when the design or operation of a control does not allow management or
employees in the normal course of performing their assigned functions
to prevent or detect misstatements of the financial statements on a
timely basis. The audit recommended the county establish internal
procedures to ensure the trail balances are correct.
ïAdjustments
were made to reclassify various revenues in the social services special
revenue fund and in the general fund and expenditures in the social
services special revenue fund and the road and bridge fund. Adjustments
were also needed in the general fund to record receivable, record
market value change on investments, record additional payables, and
also to adjust deferred revenue for grants. The audit recommended the
county establish internal procedures to ensure the trail balances are
correct.
ïAs part of the direct deposit payroll process, the
payroll tape is being brought to Merchants Bank of Caledonia without
having the floppy disk encrypted. The disk contains data private
information taken off the Paymate Payroll System, which needs to be
communicated to the bank for the direct deposit for the county
employees. Merchants Bank does not have a secure website for the county
to send the information electronically, so a diskette is being used. It
was recommended the county have all data private information encrypted
or password protected in case of loss or theft.
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