SAUK VILLAGE |
Residents should be asking the questions? How is this administration handling my tax dollars?
Clearly there is no oversight by this administration when
it comes to your tax dollars. Mayor David
Hanks’ move to put Trustee Rosie Williams and Ed Myers as chairman and co-chair
of the Village’s Finance Committee was a joke.
These same trustees have virtually nothing to say when it comes to the
Village’s budget or audit reports. It’s
kind of like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. The only checks and balances that the
residents have for their tax dollars are three trustees who seek answers to the
Village’s money Trustees Derrick Burgess, Cecial Tates and Kelvin Jones.
Burgess, Tates and Jones voted no for what is clearly an "irresponsible and
unbalanced budget", voted no to raise property taxes twice, routinely demand
that public votes be taken when it comes to spending and transferring money around,
continually ask questions about the accounts payable and voting no on reckless
spending some $200,000 for computers and software which are still not in use today.
The following are additional items in the Village’s Audit
Management Letter:
3. Expense Reimbursements (Repeated
from Prior Year)
We noted that not
all expense reimbursement requests include evidence of approval prior to
reimbursement. We recommend that all
expense reimbursement request be reviewed and approved by an individual in supervisory
capacity, prior to reimbursement.
Additionally, the
Village’s per-diem expense allowance policy does not require the submission of
receipts to substantiate the amount paid to the individual. Per-diem allowances that lack receipts as
evidence of the business nature of the expense, and which are in excess of
IRS-prescribed amounts, are required to be reported as income to the individual
on Form W-2 or 100, as appropriate.
Consideration should be given to reevaluating the village’s expense
reimbursement policy in light of its current practice and IRS reporting
requirements.
Editorial note: Why
not simply do away with the antiquated and archaic “per-diem” policy. Do like most corporations do reimburse
individuals for their out of pocket expenses after the fact. Seems simple enough!
4. Purchase Orders (Repeated from
Prior Year)
We noted that the
Village lacks a formal purchasing policy, and that purchase orders are not used
for most purchases. We recommend that
the Village develop and adhere to a formal purchasing policy. Purchases that require a purchase order
should be formally approved by an individual other than the employee initiating
the purchase order.
Editorial note: Where
do the auditors get that there is no “purchasing policy”? The Village adopted a Purchasing Manual in
the early 1990s and amended said Purchasing Manual on June 23, 1993 and again
on July 23, 2003 and votes were taken to waive certain requirements of the
Purchasing Manual. Most of which, David
Hanks was on the Village Board when they waived such requirements! What is puzzling, is why hasn’t this
Administration taken the same votes to in the form of an Ordinance to “waive” competitive
bidding for items never included in the Village’s Budget for instance, the
computers and software that the Village bought to the tune of some $200,000? Bet that is going to be in the next audit
finding report!
An expert on Illinois Municipal Finance,
intimately familiar with Sauk Village’s financial history reviewed the
Village’s audit and management letter and stated the following: “I don't believe any of these are just normal issues. In a well run
environment, none of these issues should occur. There should always be a
system of "double-check" in order to eliminate any possibility of
wrongdoing. We have many of these safeguards in place to prevent fraud
and provide transparency with taxpayer’s money.
What I don't get is the lack of attention being paid to account
receivables. What exactly does everyone working at Village Hall do?
Why is it that the Finance Director has no backup from existing staff? What
does this so called Village Administrator or the Mayor do? (by the way the
Finance Director seems to have a lot of
authority according to this report)? This report is pathetic!”
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