Stephens Co. Gets Clean Audit Report

Stephens County receives a clean Fiscal Year 2015 audit.

On Tuesday, County Administrator Phyllis Ayers presented the results of the audit from Mauldin and Jenkins to the county commission.

Ayers said that a clean opinion was given to the county by auditors.

She added that the county has a strong fund balance.

“Our fund balance, $8.8 million,” said Ayers. “That is the largest fund balance I have seen since I started tracking this in the year 2000. Some of those years we were negative. We have a good strong fund balance for a small community.”

However, Ayers said a large portion of that $8.8 million fund balance is being saved for specific purposes and is not available for general use by the county.

“$2.8 million of that has to be set aside for the 30 years post closure at the landfill and $4.3 million has to be set aside for the fact that our fiscal year begins three months before we collect taxes, so we have to have reserves to get through that period.”

Ayers said some of that fund balance is also set aside for financial recovery and for E-911 equipment.

As a result, she said only about $900,000 of that fund balance is unreserved.

Also, Ayers said that auditors did have two findings for the county.

One is segregation of duties, which Ayers said the county receives every year because it cannot hire enough staff to completely segregate all financial duties. She added that is a common one for governments to receive.

Ayers said the other finding was something the county had no control over, but was the result of a mistake by the county’s bank.

“By state law, we have to collateralize every tax dollar 110 percent over the FDIC amount,” said Ayers. “When we issued our general obligation bonds, the left hand at First Citizens did not talk with the right hand and they did not collateralize (the bonds).”

Ayers said that issue has now been resolved and everything is done properly.

Stephens County Commission Chair Dennis Bell said he is especially pleased of the fund balance figures the county has.

“It is a sign that things may be turning around for Stephens County in our economy and our government,” said Bell.

Bell said he is pleased with the overall audit outcome as well.