FORT SCOTT — Baker Tilly told Bourbon County commissioners the county will be ready to close its books at year-end, as specialists work through unreconciled items.
“We’ll be ready for year-end close for sure, and so there shouldn’t be any delay in audit or anything else going forward,” Matt Lawn of Baker Tilly told commissioners by phone Nov. 2. Lawn said a team of the firm’s bank reconciliation specialists is clearing unresolved items. Asked whether the work is only for payroll, he said, “It’s more than just payroll.” He said a cost proposal will follow once the scope is clear.
A week earlier, County Treasurer Jennifer Hawkins told commissioners that seven payrolls had not hit the county’s general ledger, leaving her unable to give departments accurate budget reports, and that variances now run to four pages. “There needs to be a lot of checks and balances. I can’t do everything,” she said.
The Bourbon County Monitor reported Oct. 30, from emails it obtained through an open-records request, that Hawkins told commissioners the clerk’s accounts payable account had been overdrawn, with $262 in fees, and that a report listed 87 items totaling a net $445,695.40. The Monitor reported that auditor Emily Franks replied, “the items not in bank is a very big problem which needs to be addressed prior to audit.”
Read the full story on the Nov. 2 meeting.