City external audit covers ‘good year’

Carson City’s Audit Committee accepted an external audit report Tuesday from Kafoury Armstrong & Co. and is sending it along to the Board of Supervisors for final approval.

The audit, according to Kafoury Armstrong’s Dan Carter, went well. He cited only a minor deficiency regarding reporting on federal grants, but no dollar-related problems.

“Overall, I think it was a good year,” said Carter, adding that the reporting deficiency was an oversight and corrective action has been taken. The audit covered the fiscal year ending June 30.

Finance Director Nick Providenti was asked by a committee member if reporting oversight was because of a problem other than staff shortage. He replied it is a matter of needing additional staff, saying a smaller number of city workers after the recession requires a “balancing act” that can cause the occasional oversight.

The audit panel also heard a report from Moss Adams LLP on internal audit matters, among them the status of city fleet utilization, the fraud waste and abuse program, and city government performance metrics. Members were told a draft fleet utilization report is completed, the fraud hotline began Nov. 1 but there have been no calls the first month, and performance metrics are being tied to outcome measures with an eye to effectiveness.

Regarding the fraud hotline, city staff training as well as crafting of policies and procedures are in the works, but an extensive rollout about the program beyond staff to the public in Carson City isn’t planned until after the first of next year.