Independent team praises Citi's bookkeeping
COVINGTON, Ky. – An independent audit team has certified the City of Covington’s accounting practices and financial record-keeping as in a sound state of health as “the best possible.”
The city also said it had resolved a lingering problem that had plagued the audit since 1996.
“We issued a clean, unedited opinion on both the financial statements and major federal programs,” said Morgan Lyle, assurance manager at Barnes Denig CPAs. “That’s the best you can get, and the team did a great job of that.”
Mayor Joe Meyer praised the assessment by the Department of Finance, led by Steve Webb.
“This is actually a very important audit report in the recent history of the city of Covington,” the mayor said. “There are no weaknesses or shortcomings. In other words, for the first time in more than 20 years, our books are in a professionally acceptable state. This is an achievement that the Treasury should be very proud of and one that will continue to It sets a new standard for future expectations. There should be no more audits with significant weaknesses or significant deficiencies. This is indeed a very positive outcome for the quality of the city's financial record keeping. This is a recognition of the improvement.”
Webb said the goal he set when he came to the city in late August 2022 was a clean audit. Last year's audit, which looked at the financial year ending June 30, 2022, said there were four findings that auditors called “material deficiencies.” ”
To eliminate these, Treasury is further separating staff duties to create protections against fraud opportunities, strengthening the ARPA reporting process, remediating weaknesses in the processing of credit card purchases, and improving the processing of all transactions. has been strengthened. The auditors did not find anything that needed adjustment.
“That was one of the things I wanted to fix, and I'm proud that we were able to do that in my first full year,” said Webb, who was recently named the Kentucky Government Finance Officers Association's “Treasurer of the Year” and was elected as the association's 2023 president. “My team and I have made a lot of changes to procedures and processes.”
***
This audit and its results are included in Covington's annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023.
# # #
