{"id":51370,"date":"2020-09-24T19:04:07","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T01:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/audit-calls-for-improvements-to-ignacios-financial-reporting\/"},"modified":"2020-09-25T01:04:07","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T01:04:07","slug":"audit-calls-for-improvements-to-ignacios-financial-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/audit-calls-for-improvements-to-ignacios-financial-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Audit calls for improvements to Ignacio\u2019s financial reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The town of Ignacio took a second look at its financial checks and balances after finding errors during its 2019 audit. Staff members said they are confident those mistakes won\u2019t happen again, and focused on the town\u2019s overall financial growth.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The town of Ignacio\u2019s 2019 audit revealed both budgetary strengths and financial mishaps \u2013 errors town staff members vowed won\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n

The town ended 2019 in a strong financial position, with growth in its overall budget and debt-free for the first time in 25 years, town staff members said. A period of employee turnover, however, raised questions about its financial checks-and-balances systems, called internal controls. Staff members had to fix multiple errors, including $83,000 of utility bills left temporarily unrecorded, according to a 2019 audit report by accounting firm Hinton Burdick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the staff in place, and we have the systems in place. I would be surprised if those things showed up again,\u201d said Tuggy Dunton, town clerk.<\/p>\n

Hinton Burdick, which presented the report this week during a Town Board meeting, asked town staff members to correct some figures for accrued payroll, accounts payable, capital assets and a beginning fund balance. And there was the month of unposted utility billings that needed to be recorded. In some cases, monthly banking reconciliations were three to four months late, likely because of staff turnover, the report said.<\/p>\n

The auditors suggested Ignacio review some of its internal checks and balances because of the errors. Because the company was not reviewing the entire internal controls system, other mistakes could exist, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town should continue to improve its internal controls to a level where they will at least identify significant misstatements,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

During the Town Board meeting, trustees asked Hinton Burdick about misappropriations because the town has experienced embezzlement in the past. Ignacio\u2019s 2016 case is closed, and the former employee was sentenced.<\/a><\/p>\n

Durango and Cortez have also faced embezzlement cases in the last two years. Local governments experience 32% of the fraud<\/a> reported by all levels of government, according to a 2020 Association of Certified Fraud Examiners report.<\/p>\n

Hinton Burdick was not concerned about fraud from what it observed during the audit process, said Viktoryia Yahorava, in-charge auditor. It appeared the town\u2019s mistakes were caused by staff transitions and training issues, she said.<\/p>\n

During a three-month transition between finance coordinators, Dunton and another staff member shared financial duties on top of their regular tasks and needed more training for their new roles, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting the staff that was needed in place is the biggest thing. That\u2019s made a huge difference,\u201d Dunton said.<\/p>\n

Small organizations have limited capacity to add more checks and balances, said Interim Town Manager Mark Garcia.<\/p>\n

He emphasized the town\u2019s accomplishments in 2019, particularly the growth in the town\u2019s general fund and its debt-free status.<\/p>\n

The town\u2019s overall net position increased from $6.4 million to $7.1 million. Its general fund grew by about $77,000, according to the audit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s only so many checks and balances you can build in, because you have limited staff,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cWe do the best that we can, and I think that we\u2019re doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

debt-free for first time in 25 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1698,28,1235],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-finance-general","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51370"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}