Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The Jefferson County Commission has given Commissioner Betsy Barfield the go-ahead to select one of two auditors recommended by the Florida auditor general to conduct a limited scope audit of aspects of the county’s financial system.
The choices for the task are James Moore and Company and Purvis Gray and Company, two firms that focus on these types of specialized audits and that come recommended by the state auditor general.
The board’s decision on Thursday evening, Dec. 16, followed Barfield’s request about a month earlier that her colleagues consider hiring an auditor to conduct a forensic audit of the clerk’s office, which she reminded them that Clerk of Court Kirk Reams had consented to have done.
“We need to have a robust conversation about what’s going on with our finances,” Barfield said at the earlier meeting on Nov. 18.
At the time, she informed the board that she had spoken with the county’s current auditor and the latter had suggested narrowing the scope of audit to those aspects that warranted closer scrutiny.
“Because there are some things that the clerk of court office does very well, such as finances and human resources,” Barfield said at the time.
She cited among the areas that she believed should be reviewed expenditures made via purchasing cards, a type of charging card typically referred to as a P-card; travel receipts and advertising.
Other areas that Barfield said warranted examining were the fiscal policies, especially those related to P-cards, capital outlays and family insurance for employees.
At the Dec. 16 commission meeting, Commissioner Stephen Walker said that Fund 17 should also be part of the audit, as should any expenditure that involved public funds.
Fund 17 is an account in the clerk’s office that has come under question since its use to make donations to fundraising events sponsored respectively by the Jefferson County Republican Party and Ducks Unlimited under the guise of advertisement purchases.
Part of the clerk’s court-funded budget, Fund 17 is reportedly exempt from county commission review, although it still falls within the realm of public funding.
Walker made a distinction between advertising to promote events for the good of community and advertisement that promoted self-aggrandizement or resulted in gain to the individual. So long as the advertising was for the public good, it wasn’t a problem, he said.
The comment was prompted by County Coordinator Barwick Parrish noting that he may have inadvertently overstepped the line by advertising in events sponsored by such as the Monticello Opera House and certain youth organizations.
The idea for the limited scope audit is that it will not only identify the county’s accounting weaknesses, but it will also offer recommendation for remedying any problems.
The response from the public to the board’s action was generally supportive, as exemplified by Merry Ann Frisby.
Frisby said that she appreciated the commissioners wanting to save money and not spend frivolously, but she believed that the cost of the audit was warranted
“One thing that you cannot afford is to have continued loss of confidence in the way that this board and the county operate,” Frisby said. “And that’s rampant out there now. You need to spend whatever you need to spend, however you need to spend it, to regain the confidence that our tax dollars are being spent appropriately.”