City officials are working on implementing a plan that seeks to correct deficiencies and inefficiencies in city accounting processes that were detected in a review by Donohue, Gironda & Doria, CPAs, Bayonne’s auditors.
The most recent work by the firm covered the calendar year 2013. Among the deficiencies were inactive city accounts that should be updated or closed, and paperwork that should have been on file but was not. More serious recommendations involved those already being addressed in the city’s Department of Community Development following the appointment of new Assistant Director Samantha Howard.
The audit is an annual requirement, according to a city official.
“Typically an audit will contain a list of findings and recommendations,” said Chief Financial Officer Terrence Malloy. “The city is then required to put together a corrective action plan.”
The report was received earlier in the spring, filed, and forwarded to Mayor James Davis and members of the City Council. The city was then obligated to respond to the auditing firm’s report with its corrective action plan. A resolution on the action plan was passed by the council at its April 22 meeting.
“Our plan is that we will now remedy those particular comments and recommendations,” Malloy said.
Issues on the table
Many of the suggestions concerned Community Development Block Grant Funds received by the city from the federal Housing and Urban Development department. They included: not accurately accounting for income generated, not properly monitoring the program, the city not submitting quarterly reports for 2012 or 2013, not having adequate checks and balances, and being deficient in internal control over financial reporting.
“Our plan is that we will now remedy those particular comments and recommendations.” – Terrence Malloy
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Findings in other departments included inactive city accounts which were not closed, two PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes) agreements which were not on file, purchase orders and vouchers that could not be found, individual departments not reporting proceeds from permits and licenses with the tax collector on a monthly basis, and 25 instances in which employees’ voluntary deduction records were unavailable for review.
There were also four instances in which vendors were paid more than the $36,000 bid threshold for contracts without a bid process in place. Malloy attributed that to multiple departments buying similar items, but not banding together for those purchases.
“So for that, we’ll make sure we go out to bid going forward,” he said.
Malloy said that virtually all the recommendations would be completed this year, except for a couple that rely on files that the FBI has taken and still retains in their ongoing probe into the CDBG program. Those deficiencies will be addressed when the needed files are returned, Malloy said.
Joseph Passantino may be reached at JoePass@hudsonreporter.com.To comment on this story online visit www.hudsonreporter.com.