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Town auditor flags three 2025 accounting weaknesses, urges timely budgeting and reconciliations
Summary
Auditor Vickie Case told the Plain Dealing Board of Aldermen on July 14 that the town’s 2025 audit found three deficiencies — a late budget adoption, improper remittance of some court fines, and unrecorded receivables — and recommended procedural fixes, statutory review, and independent reconciliations.
At the Town of Plain Dealing’s July 14 meeting, auditor Vickie Case of Cook & Morehart presented the results of the town’s audit for the year ending 2025 and identified three formal findings.
Case said the audit found that the town’s budget was not adopted in a timely manner; that a portion of court costs and fines were not remitted properly to other agencies; and that accounts receivable and customer deposits were not being recorded to the town’s general ledger when billed. She recommended the town “implement procedures to adopt the budget in a timely manner and in accordance with the Local Government Budget Act,” review the applicable provisions of the Louisiana Revised Statutes for proper remittance of fines, and have accounts receivable reconciled to the general ledger by someone independent of the deposit process.
The auditor presented the findings as recommendations for internal-control improvements rather than immediate sanctions. The board did not take formal corrective action during the meeting but acknowledged the report and will review the auditor’s recommendations and relevant state law before the next meeting.
The audit presentation is recorded on the meeting agenda; the town’s next steps, according to Case’s recommendations, are to adopt procedural changes to budget timing, confirm the correct distribution of court-related fines under state law, and establish an independent reconciliation process to ensure receivables are recorded accurately.
