Cherokee Tribune – BoE to decide on inviting auditor to address findings

The Cherokee County School Board will decide Thursday whether or not to invite an audit firm representative to a board meeting to discuss the 2011 audit findings, as requested by a board member.

The school board will take up the request made by School Board member Michael Geist at its regular meeting on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Geist has asked the board to bring a representative from the 2010-11 fiscal year audit company, Mauldin and Jenkins, to summarize the 2011 audit findings for the board and address questions from individual board members.

Geist made the request after Board member Kelly Marlow continued to request that the auditors attend a meeting without making an official agenda item.

According to Geist’s explanation for the request, the audit for the fiscal year that ended in 2011 “noted negative findings related to compliance, control, equity balances, cash accounts, year-end financial close-out procedures, collateralization of accounts and other areas.”

“I would suggest that it would be appropriate for the board to review and better understand the severity of these findings — or lack thereof — and take corrective action as needed,” Geist wrote in his summary explanation and background for the agenda item request.

At the Sept. 5 School Board meeting, Marlow brought up the audit and asked why no Mauldin and Jenkins representative had come to a meeting yet. Board Chair Janet Read told Marlow that she needed to request an agenda item so the district could do research on the possible cost that the auditor may charge for a visit, since “the auditor does not work for us.”

via Cherokee Tribune – BoE to decide on inviting auditor to address findings.