"Unremarkable" audit for Sundance

The annual audit review for the City of Sundance threw up no particular surprises, according to Paul Stille of Leo Riley & Associates. Stille presented the audit findings to the council last week, mentioning just two items of interest.

The first of these was the usual issue with separation of duties, in which there are too few eyes on a single transaction as it moves through the process. Having a different person be responsible for each step, from accepting a check to recording it, increases the checks and balances on the city’s finances, which in turn decreases the risk of fraud.

“It’s something we’ve had in the past,” said Stille, explaining that it’s difficult to avoid this note appearing on the audit because City Hall just has “not enough people to perform all the functions.”

The second issue related to a problem at City Hall last year when the computer system experienced a serious crash. Recovering the backup from the cloud proved extremely difficult because the company previously responsible for IT had changed some settings without alerting the city.

Mayor Paul Brooks explained that the city had paid for backup, but hadn’t been able to access it, so had started rebuilding the records. Through the persistence of the clerks, he said, the records were eventually retrieved and were merged with what had been rebuilt.

“I don’t think there was anything in there that was neglected by any means,” Brooks said.

Stille stressed that he does not believe it was anyone’s fault, but said it does highlight the need to create relationships with contractors that will ensure the city is alerted when changes are made.

While he felt the need to comment, “I don’t fault anyone at the city for how it happened,” he said.

The mayor acknowledged the audit review and his approval that it was “basically a fairly unremarkable audit.”