Reporting from the 1/28/2014 BOT Meeting. The BOT is looking into hiring a new firm- UHY, Advisors to become our township auditors. It has not been voted on yet but they are the company under consideration. UHYs fee for audit services only are $25K for the first year and increases by $500/year for a 3 year contract. This is somewhat more (approx. $9K) than what our former auditor Robertson, Eaton & Owen charged. UHY will also charge an additional fee as did our auditor Ron Eaton for non-audit services. UHY is a prominent firm with a good reputation, so while they are more expensive, it seems that they will do a very competent job. Trustee Todd also presented some information about Jeffery Stevens from the company Maner Costerisan, CPA, P.C. to perform the forensic audit. Both companies are listed online if anyone wants to research them. Mr. Todd did not have copies for the public or in the Board Packet re: Mr. Stevens proposal for a forensic audit; but BOT members do have copies that were sent to them via email and can provide them if requested as they are public documents that was presented at a public meeting. The other significant thing that I will report on relates to our 2013 Audit and our required response to the State. As most people know we received one (1) Material Weakness and four (4) Significant Deficiencies in our most recent fiscal audit. In Oct. 2013 we received a letter from the MI Dept. of Treasury that required us to submit a Corrective Action Plan to address these audit failings by Nov. 25 2013. Unfortunately this is now overdue by more than 60 days. I brought up concerns about meeting the States deadline back in Nov., but there was a great deal of discussion presented by the Audit Committee (Trustees Todd and Thornton) that having a forensic audit might serve as part of our Corrective Action Plan (CAP), and that we should focus on securing that before submitting a CAP. A majority of the BOT agreed with this. However, while it has been on the BOT Agendas to vote on a Resolution to retain a Forensic Accountant and there have been some candidates that have submitted letters of engagement, none have actually been voted on. At least three times this has been tabled or removed from the agenda. Treasurer Dew took it upon herself to address the situation by putting together and presenting a draft for a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) at this past meeting. Trustee Keefe and myself offered to assist her by reviewing her draft, along with past Resolutions and CAPs to ensure that everything is in the proper format for submission. The BOT seems to have reached a consensus that we should submit a CAP that addresses the areas identified in our last audit and to do so as soon as possible. We will continue with our efforts to retain a forensic auditor but to not have the creation and submission of the CAP be dependent on obtaining a forensic auditor given we are so delinquent in our response. Hopefully between the efforts of Ms. Dew, Joe Keefe and myself on the CAP; the findings and recommendations by a forensic accountant; and the coordinated efforts of both the Treasurers and the Clerks offices using the new BS&A.Net program we will be able to rectify all of our financial concerns and processes for the betterment and approval of the township.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 10:05:39 +0000
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