The city of Poplar Bluff received a clean audit report Monday during a regular meeting of the city council, with several recommendations to improve how spending is tracked.
The firm of Beussink, Hey, Roe and Stroder LLC reviewed financial reports relating to approximately $66.5 million in spending for the 2020 fiscal year.
“You don’t have to wait until after I come to do the audit to know that your statements were reliable for decision-making purposes,” explained Jeff Stroder, the auditor representative, praising the financial statements compiled for the audit. “The information you were relying on to make decisions before the audit was done was pretty much the way they were reported on.”
The auditor explained it is very rare for a city the size of Poplar Bluff to not need to make major adjustments to financial statements once reviews begin.
That spending amount included (approximate): general government, $6 million; police and fire protection, $8.6 million; transportation, $2.9 million; culture and recreation, $2 million; Municipal Utilities, $42.3 million; Black River Coliseum, $1.2 million; Poplar Bluff airport, $620,000; and Poplar Bluff golf course, $648,000.
Auditors did caution city officials that compliance with procedures meant to track spending has not been followed in some instances.
A review of timesheets found that several failed to have the necessary documentation showing approval from heads of departments before checks were written, according to the presentation.
Auditors also found receipts were missing for portions of credit card purchases that had been made, which is not in compliance with city policy. The paperwork also appeared to be missing paperwork showing the approval of a supervisor.
Auditors also pointed out a $183,000 purchase made by the parks and recreation department that was not a budgeted expense and should have been approved by council, but was not.
The items were mentioned in the hopes that the city would follow policy in the future, according to the discussion.
“That was something we just wanted to point out to just make sure that those happen the way that the policy manual requires it,” Stroder said.
The city also reported total revenues of $71.7 million.