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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Page 10
Monitoring and review of the Smith Village Housing Project is underway. The Grants/DCED Advisory Committee has been reviewing issues relating to compliance with HUD and NSP2 guidelines. |
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Sun May 20, 2018 3:27 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Deficit spending foes back many years and many administrations. When cutting staff, they may have made grave errors in cutting the staff that generated income. I remember asking contractors why no permits were posted. They told me the city took to long to process and inspect. That was included in numerous lawsuits.
Not enough staff in the Finance office led to numerous articles citing Flint ineptitude. Apple Valley even devoted a blog to Flint former Finance Director Marc Puckett and blamed him for much of Flint's problems.
Flint Talk Forums View topic - Did Puckett's mismangement lead to ...
www.flinttalk.com › Political Talk
Mar 15, 2017 - 13 posts - 1 author
The Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, released the report in September detailing alarming information about Marc Puckett, ... |
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Tue May 22, 2018 8:39 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint has a history of financial problems all the way back to Mayor Rutherford, who lost his third election for supporting the Mott Foundation on Auto World.
The audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1998 detailed "significant deficiencies in the design or operation of the internal control over financial reporting that in our judgement, could adversely affect City of Flint's ability to record, process, summarize and report financial data consistent with the assertions of management in the financial statements."
Amon the reportable conditions were expenditures that exceeded the budget adopted by City council. State law was violated when budget amendments were not made timely.
There was a failure to review the budget through the year and ensure actual revenues were received and supportive of the expenditures. "Due to staffing constraints in both the Finance and Budget departments, transactions are not being recorded on the general ledger timely,therefore the the information needed to perform monthly or quarterly budget to actual analysis is not available."
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Tue May 22, 2018 3:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tue May 22, 2018 9:01 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The auditor Dupuis & Ryden recommended a that the general ledger balances be reviewed ona regular basis to detect and correct errors for improperly posted transactions.
The software used by the City for property tax levy and collection was to integrate with the general ledger. "While all property taxes were paid out during current and prior tax years, some distributions were not correct."...."Therefore, some taxing authorities have received payments greater than or less than what they should have received for current and prior tax year rolls"
The State of Michigan guided the recalculation and compared the recalculated amounts were compared to the actual disbursements. "In the future, we suggest that the City perform a manual reconciliation each year of taxes collected, paid, and outstanding for each taxing authority to verify that system computed payouts are correct". |
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Tue May 22, 2018 9:21 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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" The distribution adjustments made during 1998 primarily involve the calculation of TIFA district captured taxes. Other tax related receipts posted in the City agency fund including IFT and CFT payments to the State of Michigan , trailer park fees, payments in lieu of taxes, and penalties and interest on late taxes still need to be paid out to the proper parties. The nonpayment of these items and other factors have contributed to the City tax collection agency fund holding approximately $21 million in pooled cash resources. The origin of these monies on hand at June 30,1998 should be reviewed, all reports related to each source of funds filed and required payouts made accordingly. We suggest that the City annually review the balance held in the trust and agency funds to ensure that all receipts are remitted to the proper parties in accordance with State law.
In addition, property tax pax payments were not consistently made within the 15 working day deadline required by State law." |
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Tue May 22, 2018 9:42 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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"During 1998, bank reconciliations for certain bank accounts were not performed on a timely basis. Some June 30, 1998 bank reconciliations were not prepared unil seven months after year end, including the main pooled cash checking and investment account which had $97 million in cash and investments.
Several account reconciliations contain known reconciling items that are 12-24 months old. The majority of these reconciling items are immaterial but should have been resolved by adjusting the general ledger in prior years. In addition, the bank reconciliation of the pooled account includes a number of unknown variances between the bank balance and the general ledger balance. The dollar amount of the variances have been confirmed to differences between Treasury and Finance postings of daily cash receipts. However, the nature of the variances are unknown, so the general ledger has not been adjusted for these items. As a result, while the majority of these reconciling items are immaterial, the number of reconciling items is significant and makes the bank reconciliation process extremely cumbersome and time consuming. Also the general ledger balance, while reconciled to the bank, is not accurate due to unposted transactions." |
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Tue May 22, 2018 11:06 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Dupuis & Ryden suggestions:
* Commit staff and time to perform the bank reconciliation timely and adjust the general ledger for known reconciling items on a timely basis
* Implement a standard format of the bank reconciliations performed by City staff
* Structure the standard format of the bank reconciliation to clearly separate reconciling items which are timing variances between recognition by the bank versus recognition on the general ledger from those items for which the general ledger should be adjusted. This procedure will assist staff in determining the general ledger adjustments necessary to correct the carrying value.
* Implement a procedure for regular review of the reconciliation by supervisory personnel and establish time lines for reconciling and posting of general ledger adjustments
* Implement a procedure to ensure that unknown reconciling items are resolved and adjusting entries made as soon as possible. |
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Tue May 22, 2018 12:36 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Interfund receivables and payables
"The general ledger contains numerous and material interund receivables and payables which were created by fund transfers and audit adjustments. In most cases, the payable was designed as a long term advance, the owed fund is not receiving interest on the receivable, and the owing fund has sufficient cash funds to eliminate the payable. In order to "clean up" the general ledger, we suggest that cash transfers be made to eliminate these interfund payables and receivables as of June 30,1999. Additionally, the balances should be eliminated on an annual basis in the future. This is appropriate as the allocation of pooled cash investment earnings is based on each funds respective balance in the pooled cash account. By maintaining these receivables and payables, the fund which "owes' the money receives the interest income which should be received by the fund which has the fund equity. By eliminating the receivables annually, the interest income is being allocated on a basis that is more proportional to each fund's equity as well as its pooled cash balance." |
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Tue May 22, 2018 12:57 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Motor Pool usage rates
It was noted that the Motor Pool usage billing system was not updated to include the most recent State of michigan Schedule C rates. Therefore, the usage charges to the gas and weight tax funded Major and Local Street funds were not as high as allowed by the State. To ensure that the motor pool fund receives as much funding as allowed,the City should ensure that the billing system is updated annually for the Schedule C rates. |
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Tue May 22, 2018 1:11 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Staffing and Training
Due to an early retirement program, a umber of city employees have retired in the past two to three years. The city has been unable services.to replace those staff in terms of numbers and experience level,relying upon contractual workers and temporary services.
Also, during 1998, the City began implementing several new accounting and financial operation software and hardware updated. Finance staff were extensively involved in the software conversion which took time away from their usual duties. As a result, we believe that current staffing levels were not sufficient to keep the financial records maintained properly. We would suggest that the City review its staffing levels extensively in the context of the new operating system to determine if changes should be made in the number of assigned staff. |
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Tue May 22, 2018 3:42 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| "The early retirement program also resulted in a number of experienced staff leaving the city, with new personnel taking over various responsibilities and supervisory duties. At the time of the transition,written policy and procedure manuals were not utilized by City departments. Therefore, many new duties had to be learned "on the job" and the transition was not as efficient as possible. We believe that it is important to utilize procedures manuals from both a reference and training perspective. Given the implementation of new software and operating procedures throughout the City, we feel it would be the opportune time to update or establish procedural manuals for all financial operations." |
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Tue May 22, 2018 3:57 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| A material weakness is a condition in which the design or operation of one or more internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low level the risk that misstatements in amounts that would be material in relation to the financial statements being audited may occur and not be detected within a timely period by performing their their assigned functions. Our consideration of the internal control over financial reporting would not necessarily disclose all reportable conditions that are considered to be material weaknesses.However, we consider all of the reportable conditions described above except for the usage of the outdated Schedule c rates in motor pool billings to be material weaknesses. August 19, 1999. |
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Tue May 22, 2018 4:20 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES
GRANTS TO THE FLINT POLICE DEPARTMENT
FLINT, MICHIGAN
Award Number 95-CC-WX-0340
Audit Report Number GR-50-98-013
July 22, 1998
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of grant awards to the Flint, Michigan Police Department by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The Flint Police Department (FPD) received $1,725,000 to hire or rehire 23 additional sworn police officers under the Accelerated Hiring, Education, and Deployment (AHEAD) Program and the Universal Hiring Program (UHP). The purpose of the additional officers is to enhance community policing efforts.
In brief, our audit revealed that:
• Costs charged to the AHEAD and UHP grants were not in accordance with grant requirements. This occurred because FPD did not maintain the minimum number of locally funded sworn officers. As a result, we questioned costs in the amount of $222,681.
• Submission of required reports was not in accordance with grant requirements. Specifically, Officer Progress Reports and the Annual Department Report were not submitted to COPS, and the Department Initial Report and Financial Status Reports were not submitted timely. |
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Tue May 22, 2018 4:48 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Tue May 22, 2018 4:59 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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State of Michigan questioning Flint FAST Start program costs, contractors
by NBC25/FOX66 Newsroom Thursday, May 31st 2018
File. The state of Michigan wants answers from the city of Flint about the mayor's program to replace lead service lines and questions surrounding two of the contractors hired to do the work. (Photo: Jason Lorenz/WEYI/WSMH)
FLINT, Mich. – The state of Michigan wants answers from the city of Flint about the mayor's program to replace lead service lines and questions surrounding two of the contractors hired to do the work.
In a letter sent to city hall Thursday DEQ officials want to know why contractors WT Stevens and Waldorf & Sons were paid nearly $200,000 on work that didn't need to be done.
In the letter it says the two contractors charged seventeen hundred dollars for excavations at 211 homes, but the homes didn't have lead service lines.
ADVERTISING
The state saying the approved method called hydro-excavation would only cost $228 per property.
The state also saying the two contractors never should have been awarded additional work this year after not completing 404 addresses that were awarded in 2017.
We have not heard back from city hall for a comment on the letter.
The state requires an answer in writing by June 15th.
You can read the full letter below:
Weaver Hydro Evacuation 053118 2 by NBC25 on Scribd |
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Fri Jun 01, 2018 12:04 pm |
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