A new audit from the office of state Auditor Mike Harmon found that Allen County Fiscal Court did not adequately segregate its duties or deposit its receipts quickly enough.

Judge-Executive Johnny Hobdy said Allen County’s government is working to cut down on these problems but the fiscal court’s limitations are rendering improvements difficult to make.

Ideal segregation of duties would mean that tasks such as preparing deposits, posting those deposits to the receipts ledger, performing payroll reporting procedures and reconciling bank accounts are all performed by different people, Hobdy said, adding that many smaller county governments are unable to do this.

According to a summary of the audit, county Treasurer Melba Patrick is responsible for performing all these duties. Patrick, who was out of the office Monday, could not be reached for comment.

“We need to do a better job of that but we’ve got people doing multiple jobs so it’s a little difficult,” Hobdy said.

In an attempt to prevent fraud or abuse from occurring, staff has become more involved in trying to root out inconsistencies in record keeping, Hobdy said.

“We’ve tried to move it around, with people checking each other’s work,” he said.

The fiscal court has also hired an employee to help with this, Hobdy said. 

“We have hired a part-timer to help with deposits, to give us another set of eyes,” he said.

The audit also found that fiscal court didn’t deposit receipts for transactions involving garbage collection, occupational taxes and reimbursements from the city of Scottsville in a timely manner, according to the summary.

“Delaying the deposit of receipts or not accounting for all receipts in the proper period can be used to conceal theft of payments,” the summary said, adding that making deposits every day reduces this risk.

The summary included a response from Hobdy, quoting him as saying, “Due to offsite locations we had lag in deposits. Working to improve that time between offsite cash and deposits.”

A limited staff causes delays as well because government employees can’t always find time to get funds to the bank the day they arrive, he said.

Despite this, the Allen County government tries to make its deposits as often as possible, Hobdy said.

“We’re not in the financial position to let money lay around for weeks,” he said. “We need that money to continue to operate.”

— Follow reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.