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Taylor Releases Shawnee Township Cemetery Association Report

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Allen County -

Auditor of State Mary Taylor today released the financial audit report of the Shawnee Township Cemetery Association. The report reveals that most of the financial documents the cemetery association is required by state law to maintain were missing, inaccurate or incomplete. This resulted in a significant delay in the audit process.

The cemetery association was declared “unauditable” for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 on October 12, 2006. The State Auditor declares public entities “unauditable” when an agency is unable to provide the documents necessary to complete a routine financial audit.

“The lack of complete and accurate financial information could lead to fraud, waste and abuse,” Taylor said. “I strongly encourage association board members to institute proper checks and balances for financial reporting to help them become better stewards of public funds.”

Other significant issues revealed in the report include:

  • Federal and state taxes were withheld from employee paychecks but not forwarded to the proper taxing agency which could result in the association paying unnecessary fees or other penalties
  • Failure to adopt a formal budget for 2004, 2005 and 2006 which could lead to improper or illegal spending
  • Fund accounts that were not balanced for most of 2004, 2005 and 2006 which could result in errors or other irregularities

A copy of the complete report is available online at www.auditor.state.oh.us.

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The Ohio Auditor of State’s office is one of the largest accounting offices in the nation.  The office strives to ensure that all public funds are spent legally and appropriately and works aggressively to root out fraud, waste and abuse in public spending. Taylor encourages anyone suspecting fraud or misspending of public dollars to contact her office toll free at 1-866-FRAUD-OH (1-866-372-8364).