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Town auditor reports three findings, including material weakness in bank reconciliations
Summary
An external auditor told Vivian aldermen Jan. 12 that audits for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, revealed three findings — a budget overrun in the Industrial Development Fund, unreconciled interagency accounts, and a material weakness tied to late or inaccurate bank reconciliations — and the town pledged corrective controls.
An external auditor told the Town of Vivian Board of Aldermen on Jan. 12 that the town's financial audits for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, produced three formal findings, including a material weakness involving bank reconciliations.
Vickie Case of Cook & Morehart, Certified Public Accountants, delivered printed audit reports and letters to the Legislative Auditor and said auditors found: that actual expenditures for the Industrial Development Fund exceeded the budget by more than 5%; that interagency account amounts (Due To/From Other Funds and transfers) were not reconciled, requiring significant audit time to correct; and that bank reconciliations for three accounts were not completed accurately or timely, which required material adjustments. "During our audit, we noted that bank reconciliations for three of the Town's bank accounts were not completed accurately or timely," Case stated.
The audit report text and the town's written responses (included with the auditor's presentation) lay out planned corrective actions. For the budget finding the town responded: "The Town is monitoring our budgets and will amend as needed in order to comply with the Local Government Budget Act." For the interagency-account deficiency and the bank-reconciliation weakness the town said it had "established internal controls for reviewing and reconciling the various interagency accounts" and "implemented additional controls for ensuring that bank reconciliations are completed accurately and timely."
Why it matters: a material weakness in reconciliations can increase the risk of misstated financial statements and requires management action to strengthen internal controls. The audit required significant additional auditor time to reconcile affected accounts, the auditor told the board.
Next steps: the auditor filed reports and letters to the Legislative Auditor as part of the town's required filings; town officials told the board they will amend budgets as needed and formalize periodic reconciliation reviews to address the findings. No formal vote to accept the audit report is recorded beyond the presentation and the town's written responses.
