JOHN COFFELTEditor

The Coffee County finial report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023 shows two findings, a reoccurring finding from the Coffee County Clerk’s office and new one from the Register of Deed’s office.

A review stemming from last year’s audit resulted in the first finding. The Comptroller’s Division of Investigations is currently reviewing certain operations in the County Clerk’s Office. “Findings, if any, resulting from this review will be included in a subsequent report,” the audit says.

The second finding was that “bank statements were not accurately

reconciled with the general ledger.” This is listed as an “Internal Control – Significant Deficiency Under Government Auditing Standards.”

According to the report that lists Register of Deeds Donna Toney statement of agreement with the finding. It says that “Bank statements were not accurately reconciled with the general ledger. The register attempted to reconcile the bank account; however, unidentified immaterial differences were reflected on the bank account reconciliations for nine months of the year and not all of the

outstanding checks were included in the reconciliations.”

The audit adds that “Sound business practices dictate that bank statements should be reconciled with the general ledger monthly to ensure errors are identified and corrected promptly. Cash in bank at June 30, 2023, was determined by substantive testing and alternative auditing procedures and is presented properly in the financial statements of this report. This deficiency can be attributed to a lack of management oversight.”

It recommends that these records should be reconciled with the general ledger monthly, and any differences discovered should be identified and corrected promptly.

The audit includes Toney’s responded that the office will take corrective action.

“We are working with our Software Company to implement additional Reconciliation Procedures of our Bank Statements to our General Ledger due to the Software Company going through a conversion within their company,” she is quoted as saying.

Chairman of the Audit Committee Gary Hunt expressed concerns over the finding.

He said during the March 4 Audit Committee meeting that the finding was “kind of serious.”

Hunt said unequivocally he was not comfortable with the finding.

“I’m not comfortable with the response until we find out,” he said. “I don’t know why there’s an issue with the software company now and there’s not been one for the last five years.”

Hunt stressed he was not implying any misconduct. The amount of the discrepancies was not noted.

“That’s a procedural problem even if it’s for a dollar that’s an issue,” Hunt said. “I want to know why, how because it could have just as easily been $100,000 check as easily as a dollar check if it was a procedural or a software problem.”

The committee will reconvene when the comptrollers’ report concerning the County Clerk’s Office finishes its report. Members intend to meet with Toney at a later meeting.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.