By MELINDA J. OVERSTREET
for Glasgow News 1
The anticipated delivery date for the audit report on the City of Glasgow’s financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, has been pushed back again and again this year, and now it looks like it may be another week or so before city officials have it in their hands.
Updates on the audit have routinely been provided during the Glasgow Common Council Finance Committee’s meetings, and over the past few months, information was provided to the panel indicating the “field work” for the audit – physical review of the actual records and processes followed in what has been renamed the Luska J. Twyman Municipal Building, formerly Glasgow City Hall – had been completed but the report itself still had to be compiled. Then the group heard that the report was written but pending review. At its July meeting, Mayor Henry Royse said that Jeff Carter, a partner with Taylor, Polson & Co., the accounting firm that has performed the city’s audit for many years, had told him he was committed to having it ready for city officials by the end of that month.
Traditionally, the finance committee is presented with the report and a representative from the accounting firm provides an overview. Then, the full council gets copies and a somewhat more abbreviated version of the verbal overview occurs. Most of the time, this has occurred at back-to-back meetings, with the full council meeting immediately following the committee gathering.
At least one or two of the committee members had expressed a desire to have the information presented there on a different day, so they would have more time to absorb the information between meetings.
Approval from neither the committee nor the full council is required, however, of the report itself or receipt thereof.
Councilman Terry Bunnell, who chairs the panel, asked the mayor for an update during the group’s regular meeting earlier this week. With still no audit report in sight, discussion about its tardiness went on for several minutes.
“The city’s audit is in the hands of Jeff Carter at Taylor, Polson. I’ve been emailing him every day this week telling him that we have a finance committee meeting and we’ve got to see the audit, because we really want to get it up and present it to the council, because we have so many state agencies that require this audit to be presented, and I’m kind of holding them all at bay,” Royse said.
He said the person from the Glasgow-based firm’s local office who had been working on the audit left the company before the process was complete, so the company had to regroup, and some additional personnel from the Bowling Green office came in to get it finished, relying to a certain extent on the information the previous employee had begun compiling. Royse said Carter had then had to ask someone in his office, who had been on a medical leave but was very familiar with Glasgow’s audits, to look over the completed data, so he could feel comfortable with what he would be distributing.
“He knows that we are in dire straits, trying to keep everybody happy,” the mayor said, adding that Carter is a good CPA, though, so he doesn’t want to release a report until he’s sure of its accuracy. “Now, I don’t have any secret way to go in there and push him any harder, because I’m texting him just about every day, trying to find out where we are, because we need to move on.”
Councilwoman Chasity Lowery asked whether Carter had given the mayor any indication of when it would be ready, and Royse mentioned the July 31 date with which she was already familiar.
“I think he just, he’s sort of, uh, they’ve just got a lot of things going on over there. These are challenges that he’s not able to exactly put out all the fires,” the mayor said.
“Is there an absolute end date?” asked Councilman Freddie Norris?
Royse said there isn’t, but the city’s transit service, for example, gets federal transportation funds that are passed down through the state government, and the folks who oversee that program wanted the report by April 15. He said he’s been writing them letters to update them, and they acknowledge receipt, but they have noted missed deadlines.
“So those are the aspects that fall into our hands, is being in communication with the state agencies that require our audit?” Lowery asked.
Royse said that was correct.
“But as far as we, as a city, have done everything we can to be in compliance with Taylor and Polson, so us not having the audit in our hands is simply out of our control until they deliver it,” Lowery said. “We’ve been compliant. We’ve done all we can do. We’re just waiting on, I guess, the middleman.”
The mayor affirmed that was accurate, adding that one of the purposes of an audit is to show funding providers that the money is spent and accounted for appropriately.
Bunnell acknowledged the mayor has had a lot of communications with Carter, but he said the federal agencies are going to look to city officials for not getting it completed, and he was concerned the city would be found in violation of compliance rules.
He said it was already the middle of August, so he thought they needed to get with the accounting firm and set an absolute deadline by which the city has to have the report.
Lowery said she knew city officials had had to file 30- or 45-day extensions in years past on behalf of the auditing firm, “but this just seems much longer than I’ve had experience with.”
Royse said, “I don’t want to say this, but I’m going to imply it. We’re going to have to look hard at who does our audit, because, you know, we can’t afford to lose our funding.”
“No, right,” Lowery said.
“ … because of noncompliance,” the mayor continued, “when we did everything right.”
“We have the potential to be penalized for something that’s really no fault of our own, because we can’t make them do it any faster,” Lowery said. “They have to understand our urgency. We need this – yesterday.”
She said her memory was that they have typically had the audit report as the fiscal year following the one in the audit is wrapping up, usually in May or June.
In 2024, the audit report for the prior fiscal year was presented to the city council in March. In 2023, it was July when the council got the report.
Councilman Randy Wilkinson, who is not a committee member but was attending as a guest, asked whether the task is advertised for bids or it falls under professional services for which different rules can be used.
Bids are accepted and the contract is usually awarded for three years at a time, but the other accounting firm in town hadn’t shown interest in the past. Royse said when the Barren County Economic Authority wanted to make a change for its auditing service, a Bowling Green firm was the only other company that bid.
He said getting a new company for the service likely wouldn’t be the easiest thing to do.
Bunnell asked that the mayor write a letter to Carter, emphasizing the time crunch and stating they would like for it to be delivered within 7 to 10 days.
“‘Would like’ or ‘must?’” Norris asked.
Bunnell suggested they start with “would like,” and then see what happens.
He said if they don’t get it, the city could have to get someone else to do a new audit, because ultimately, it falls back to the city’s being responsible for getting it done.
“If they can’t deliver for us, then we’re going to have to …,” Bunnell said, pausing, “We can’t have this conversation next month. We cannot have this conversation next month.”
Royse said the committee would need to have a special-called meeting as soon as possible once the report arrives, so it could then be bumped up to the full council soon after that.
The mayor said he absolutely would do that, referring to writing the letter. He said he thinks Carter is embarrassed by the situation, but he’s had some things to happen that were outside of his control.
Bunnell said they understand that, but at the same time, “We, you know, are having people to, uh, question our, uh, commitment, our judgement on running our city and having the right checks and balances through the audit process.”
On Thursday, Glasgow News 1 followed up with the mayor and asked whether the letter had been sent. Royse said he had written a draft and planned to send it if he didn’t hear back from Carter that day. Later that day, he contacted GN1 and said he had spoken with Carter and instead of sending a letter to him, he verbally asked Carter to write a letter explaining the issues behind the delays. The mayor later provided a copy of that letter and the email to which it was attached that he sent to a couple of transportation officials, Bunnell, the city attorney and the city’s transit manager.
In the body of the email, Royse states, “No one associated with this audit is happy with the delay. Mr. Carter clearly states the issues. We appreciate the extensions you have granted us through this process.”
He said the city would take “pre-emptive steps” to fully complete the audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025, “well within guidelines.”
Carter’s letter is addressed to the mayor and the committee members as a group.
“While we had originally anticipated a timelier completion, the audit report has been delayed due to a combination of internal and external factors that have impacted the pace of our work,” he wrote. “These include staffing and scheduling challenges within our firm, unforeseen health-related absences, and increased complexity in certain audit areas that required extended procedures. Additionally, transitions within the City’s administration and availability of key personnel have required additional time for coordination and discussion of audit matters.”
Carter’s letter continues, “We have been proud to serve as the City’s auditors for many years, and we remain fully committed to maintaining the high level of integrity and professionalism that our role demands. It’s important to us that the audit process be thorough, well-supported, and handled with the care necessary to meet both professional standards and the needs of the City. For that reason, we believed it was in everyone’s best interest to thoroughly investigate any findings or weaknesses with adequate audit fieldwork and discussions surrounding those findings.
“We appreciate your understanding and continued cooperation, and we expect to finalize and issue the report no later than August 31, 2025. Please feel free to contact us with any questions in the meantime.”
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