YOUNGSTOWN
A “series of problems in City Hall getting their financial information together” delayed state audit employees from conducting a thorough examination of Youngstown’s balance-sheet for the year 2010, said Ohio Auditor Dave Yost.
The city took “a long time” to provide auditors with needed information about the federal money it received and disbursed in 2010, he said.
Also, problems city officials had with a different computer financial-management system it put in service last year caused further delays, Yost said in response to an inquiry by The Vindicator about the annual report.
“When you have a new system, you run both for a while to make sure it goes smoothly,” Yost said. Problems with the new system “made it difficult for them to produce their financial reports.”
Based on the release dates of previous audits, the 2010 report should have been finished between February and April this year. The 2010 report will be made public by the end of this month, Yost said.
Also, the 2011 audit should be “done soon,” said Yost, who didn’t have a specific time frame.
City Finance Director David Bozanich said, “We are going through a conversion of our entire accounting system and that caused a minor delay with the audit.”
The city has been using both its old and new financial-management system, Bozanich said, but “we had delays in reconciling” the budget.
As for the delays in federal-money information, Bozanich said auditor employees didn’t mention anything about that to him.
Comments
The lateness of the 2010 & 2011 audit signoffs is a major problem for the City because it damages its fiscal credibility & access to capital markets .Its the last large local authority in the regiona awaiting signoff . We were told to expect signoff in AQugust & we are still waiting .
When Boardman , Canfield & Austintown , for example , want to borrow for public works , investors will buy theirs & sell their Youngstown bonds .( which raises Youngstown cost of borrowing )
The Mayor & Finance Committee Chair should have been receiving weekly updates all year on audit progress . What gives ?
If Youngstown was a listed company , its stock would have been sold off sharply by now .
Takes a lot of time to add up all those federal dollars given to the new bars.
They must not know how to account for State demolition funds through the decades being paid back by local property owners but stuffed into Youngstown's general fund.
I thought someone was auditing the "deliverables" that came out of Youngstown 2010..lol.
It takes a lot of time to cover your tracks and hide all the money passed amongst the typical crooks that are common in the Youngstown area. Once they erase their tracks...they'll get the "fudged" numbers over to the state folks to audit.
Also, lanacek, if Youngstown was listed as a company....it would have went out of business long ago.
They must be using Gov Romnay's accountant.