SAUK
VILLAGE | Three plus year into the
Administration of David Hanks and we still see a reckless pattern of financial
mismanagement at Village Hall.
Hanks
has said repeatedly over the course of the last few years that the village has “had
to borrow $500,000 each year from the water fund” in order to make
payroll. Well, according to statements
made by Village Finance Director Mohan Rao the Hanks Administrations has had to borrow some $900,000
from the water fund and $200,000 from the Noise Mitigation Fund during this
most recent fiscal year. There has never been a vote by the Village Board of Trustees to borrow such money from the water fund, as has been the case during previous administrations. The Village actually received more money from
the State of Illinois than Hanks put into his budget.
Basically, Hanks is using “fuzzy math” when it comes to his budget mismanagement and
when it comes to taking money from the water fund.
The
following is an excerpt from the Village’s most recent Audit Report Management
letter:
11.
Documentation
of Employees Salaries/Hourly Rate (Repeated from Prior Year)
We noted certain instances where
employees’ personnel files did not contain formal documentation of the current
rate of pay. We recommend that formal
documentation of all such changes be included in the personnel file, and
authorized by the departmental supervisor or another appropriate individual.
(Editorial Note: Seems simple enough right? So why is this repeated from the prior year?)
12.
Controls
over Cash Receipts (Repeated from Prior Year)
The Finance Director (Mohan Rao)
often records large cash receipts via a manual journal entry, and deposits the
receipt to the bank, in order to ensure that the receipt is deposited an
expeditiously as possible. However,
this result in a deviation from standard Village procedures. We recommend that all cash receipts, and
other transactions, be processed under the Village’s existing internal controls
on a timely basis.
13.
Capital Asset
Disposals (Repeated from Prior Year)
The Village recorded significant
capital asset additions in the current year, but did not record any disposal in
either the current year or the preceding fiscal period. The Village should consider whether, based on
the nature of additions, disposals are occurring and not being recorded. Additionally, the Village should carefully
review its capital asset details to identify potential items that are no longer
owned, and/or no longer in use
(Editorial Note: So how do they know if assets belonging to the
village aren’t disappearing?)
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!”
No comments:
Post a Comment