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Village Finance Officer Named |
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Written by Jeff Radford
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Tuesday, 23 January 2007 |
Village government has named a finance officer to take over much of the
duties of its former finance director, Luís Olay, who was terminated
late last year.
Promoted as Village finance officer is Nancy Arnold. She had worked in
the Village finance department for several months when she was tapped
to become the finance officer. She is expected to be confirmed in that
position at the January 23 council meeting.
Village officials expressed hope that Arnold will be able to correct
the ongoing deficiencies noted by auditing firms dating back to years
before Olay was in charge.
A position description approved for a finance officer December 12 lists
the following duties. “The finance officer is responsible for preparing
the Village’s financial reports to include the Village budget; to
monitor all financial resources and assets of the Village; and to
ensure quality service and financial accountability to the governing
body and citizens of the Village of Corrales. The finance officer will
work closely with the account specialists to insure that purchasing,
accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll are accurate and paid
in a timely fashion.”
The position pays $35-45,000 annually.
At the December 12 council meeting when the finance officer position
was established, councillors also belatedly approved the audit reports
for the year that ended June 30, 2005.
The required independent audit of the Village’s financial records was
performed by Hinkle & Landers, certified public accountants and
consultants.
Their report to the State Auditor and to the mayor and council notes the following problems, several of which have been chronic.
“We noted certain matters involving the internal control over financial
reporting and its operation that we consider to be reportable
conditions. Reportable conditions involve matters coming to our
attention relating to significant deficiencies in the design or
operation of the internal control over financial reporting that, in our
judgment, could adversely affect the Village of Corrales’ ability to
record, process, summarize and report financial data consistent with
the assertions of management in the financial statements.”
The audit listed nine “findings” of deficiencies, including:
• “there is a lack of checks and balances over financial accountability
for the Village’s operations and the Village Council. Cause: budgets
are not being tracked.”
• “Overstating the revenues and assets indicates that financial
statements are not being properly monitored and significant errors are
not being corrected on a timely basis. Cause: the bookkeeper was just
recording one part of the transactions.”
• documents the auditor requested could not be found;
• “Village personnel could unknowingly not be following the compliance
requirements on any of the state and federal money received by the
Village and could lose grant funding due to non-compliance. Cause: the
person in charge of grants is no longer with the Village.”
• “The financial and compliance audit is required by Statute. The
failure to have a completed audit [by] the stipulated date may
jeopardize the Village’s eligibility for funding from the State
Legislature and federal agencies. Cause: a high degree of employee
turnover resulting in significant items requested by the auditor not
being submitted in a timely manner.”
• “…lack of bank reconciliations for all accounts indicates a weakness in the monitoring of cash.…”
• “…the Village does not know if they are receiving the correct share
of property tax revenue from the Counties. Cause: …Sandoval County does
not provide the information by current and non-current year.”
• “The municipal court is at a relatively high risk of misappropriation
of revenue. During a special audit of the court that was
concluded May 11, 2005, we determined that $5,012 was taken by the
court administrator.”
• Police “tickets may be lost or misplaced or purposely withheld and not be accounted for.”
These deficiencies and others were encountered during audits prior to
the current mayor and Village Council assuming their duties in March
2006. Corrective actions have been taken in many cases. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 January 2007 )
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