Stephens Co. School System, State Meet On FY 14 Audit

The Stephens County school system and state auditors are getting started on the process of completing the school system’s Fiscal Year 2014 audit.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said he met with state auditors this week about starting to prepare the school system’s financial statements.

“We met with them so that we could get a list of the documents that they were looking for so we could gather those together,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey said the next step is for staff at the school system’s finance office to begin gathering that information for state auditors.

“We will have to have a meeting next week with our finance department to go through the list and see what documents we can get ready for and timelines for that,” said Dorsey. “I would think (the state) would not get started on financial statements until May or June, so it is still an extensive process.”

Dorsey said back in January that he would ask the state to prepare the school system’s Fiscal Year 2014 financial statements, but did not hear back from state auditors until last month.

Preparing the financial statements must take place before a different team can come from the state to actually conduct the audit.

According to Dorsey, the state is preparing the financial statements for Fiscal Year 2014 because after an initial review, a consultant told the school system there were numerous issues with them, just as in Fiscal Year 2013.

As a result, the school system is following the same audit process for Fiscal Year 2014 as it did for Fiscal Year 2013.

Dorsey said another challenge facing the system as it enters the audit process is the vacancy in the finance director’s position after Angel Terry submitted her resignation from that job last month.

Combined with a finance department that auditors and others already have said needed additional staff, Dorsey said that personnel shortages could mean that the process takes more time.

He noted that auditors, the grand jury, and the accreditation review team all recommended an additional person that was not hired, along with the now vacant finance director’s post.

“Now having what would be seen as two vacancies in that department would certainly slow down the process,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey said he is working on filling the finance director’s vacancy.

There has not been a timeline given for completing the audit at this time.