City expecting tougher audit next year

This year’s audit for the City of Sundance was both clear of red flags and “quieter” than usual, said Paul Stille of Leo Riley & Associates, who also warned the city council that, “That’s going to change next year.”

With the currently-in-progress project to replace the Sundance Kid water tank making use of Abandoned Mine Lands funding, the city will tip over the limit of $750,000 in federal money spent. Said Stille, that will mean the city has to change approach next year to, “Primarily auditing that project for the federal government.”

This is the problem with federal funding, said Mayor Paul Brooks in response.

“It’s like drinking from a fire hose [with] the requirements all the way through the project,” he said.

From engineering needs to auditing and reporting requirements, Brooks said that federal guidelines are tougher to comply with, which is why it’s usually easier to keep things in the state.

“It just adds on extra work and we’ve got to make sure we comply,” he said.

Brooks expressed his opinion that the federal government should recognize that some of the entities requesting money are too small to be able to handle all the extra requirements that are required for federal grants.

“It is what it is,” he said, but, “It would be really handy if they recognized that people with small staffs and small offices are being somewhat excluded.”

Stille provided a review of this year’s audit for the City of Sundance, stating that no irregularities were found and praising the staff for their assistance in completing it.