The 2020 fiscal year audit for the Trigg County Fiscal Court features nine comments, things Kentucky Auditor Mike Harmon’s office said the county needs to fix.
In the audit released Thursday morning, the nine comments included:
- The court lacks an adequate segregation of duties over receipts and financial reporting
- The court overspent in two funds due to an unbalanced budget being presented on the fourth quarter financial report
- The court failed to report over $7,000,000 in outstanding debt obligations
- The court has not implemented adequate controls over off-site collections
- The court did not maintain adequate documentation to support payroll disbursements
- The court did not prepare a financial statement for the public justice center corporation fund
- The court did not accurately reconcile bank accounts
- The court does not have adequate controls over the health reimbursement account program
- The court did not maintain adequate internal controls for alcohol beverage control receipts
In regards to the failure to report over $7,000,000 in outstanding debt obligations, Harmon’s office said Trigg County Fiscal Court has had similar issues in past audits. Harmon’s office continued saying the court did not report all outstanding debt bearing the county’s name on the Schedule of Outstanding Liabilities as of June 30, 2020. The debt obligations related to justice center bonds and the financing agreement on the Pennyrile Area Development District (PADD) office building were both omitted from the report.
The outstanding principal balance of the justice center bonds as of June 30, 2020, was $6,470,000, the outstanding principal balance of the financing agreement on PADD building as of June 30, 2020, was $465,000. Also, principle balances reported for the hospital lease were understated by $225,000, senior citizens’ lease was understated by $11,875, and sheriff’s office building loan was overstated by $65,952.
Harmon’s office added the court had not implemented control procedures to ensure outstanding debt bearing the
county’s name is reported accurately on the quarterly financial report. Outstanding debt obligations reported to the Department for Local Government (DLG) were materially understated. Also, due to this omission, the county may not be aware of the future financial obligations necessary to retire debt.
In response to this particular issue, Trigg County Judge-Exectuive Hollis Alexander said a sublease between Trigg County and the Pennyrile Area Development District shows the transferred financial responsibility to PADD in its entirety.
Auditor Harmon’s office replied, stating all debt described was financed in the name of Trigg County or The Trigg County Public Justice Center but added it’s ultimately the responsibility of Trigg County Fiscal Court.
The entire release in regards to the fiscal year 2020 audit for Trigg County Fiscal Court can be found here. The news release of the audit comments from Auditor Harmon’s office is nine-pages long.
