Columbus - Control weaknesses led to numerous citations and other budgetary concerns in the 2009 audit of the City of Marion released by Auditor of State Dave Yost today.
 
“City officials must improve their fiscal management and complete their financial reports on time,” Auditor Yost said.  “The people of Marion shouldn’t have to wait 15 months to learn about the financial health of their city.”
 
The city was notified of a number of different control issues, such as failure to obtain proper authorization for the expenditure of city funds.  The audit report also noted that city officials were not properly trained on how to operate the accounting software the city utilizes.
 
Another recommendation was issued because city officials did not prepare bank reconciliations in a timely manner.  For example, the December 2009 bank reconciliation was not completed until June 2010.  Also, city officials failed to complete their 2009 annual financial report by the extended July 31, 2010 deadline.  The report was not filed until October 18, 2010.
 
Budgetary issues included appropriations that exceeded the estimated resources in ten funds, totaling $936,567.  The city had two funds in which the ending appropriations exceeded actual resources by $1,368,836.
 
A full copy of this audit is available online.

The Auditor of State is one of five independently elected offices under the Ohio Constitution. Auditor Yost’s office is responsible for auditing over 5,600 state and local government agencies. Staff also works in partnership with state and local governments to deal effectively with financial, accounting and budgetary issues.

Contact:
Carrie Bartunek
Press Secretary
(614) 728-7198