Livingston Parish audit delayed as auditors reconcile multiple grants

At a meeting of the Livingston Parish Council, finance director Mickey McMorris and audit partner Jacob Wagasback of Falk and Winkler told council members the parish’s annual audit missed the June 30 deadline while auditors work to reconcile many overlapping grant funding sources.

The delay matters because the state places entities on a noncompliance list for late audits, and state funding may be withheld until the audit is filed. “When you are delinquent in reporting with the state, you will likely be placed on the noncompliance list under state audit,” McMorris said.

Wagasback, a partner at Falk and Winkler, told the council the firm has been working in the parish offices for months and is focusing on grant-related reporting. “Every dollar is accounted for,” he said. He described a complex mix of roughly 13 state grants and 80 federal grants tied to about 360 homeowners and said auditors are ensuring revenue, deferred revenue and expenditures are reported to reflect each grant’s funding mix.

The auditors and parish staff are sorting how to report advances versus reimbursements and how to allocate local, state and federal shares for each expenditure. Wagasback said some grants arrive as advances, which cannot be recognized as revenue until expenditures occur, and other grants are reimbursed after expenses. He said the parish is developing a spreadsheet-based process to track incoming funds by source and to make next year’s audit easier to prepare.

Wagasback estimated a near-term timeline for completing the work: “It’s any day. I mean, any day. I would say two weeks, three weeks.” He also told the council he expects to receive an initial draft of the report the night of the meeting.

Council members asked whether there would be monetary penalties for the missed deadline; McMorris said there are no fines but that the parish could face state withholding of funds while the audit remains outstanding. “They will likely hold back any state funding, any grants that come to the state until you submit that audit and get that,” McMorris said.

Council members and staff said they plan to present the audit status at the next council meeting and implement the tracking tools the auditors recommended. The meeting closed with a motion to adjourn moved by Watts and seconded by Mangus; the motion carried.

The parish did not adopt any ordinance or budget change during the discussion. The audit remains in progress, with the parish and auditors continuing to reconcile grant reporting before final release.