Whitley County Sheriff William Elliotte received a relatively good financial audit of his 2023 financial statement for the sheriff’s fee account, according to Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball’s Office.
State law requires the auditor to annually audit the accounts of each county sheriff. In compliance with this law, the auditor issues two sheriff’s reports each year: one reporting on the audit of the sheriff’s tax account, and the other reporting on the audit of the fee account used to operate the office.
As part of the audit process, the auditor must comment on noncompliance with laws, regulations, contracts, and grants. The auditor must also comment on material weaknesses involving the internal control over financial operations and reporting
The audit contained only one finding, which was that the sheriff’s office lacks adequate segregation of duties over various accounting functions.
“The segregation of duties involving the collection and reporting of receipts, the preparation and recording of disbursements, and bank reconciliations is a basic internal control necessary to ensure the accuracy and reliability of financial reports. This deficiency increases the risk of misappropriation of assets, errors, and inaccurate financial reporting,” according to a release from Ball’s office.
“We recommend the county sheriff segregate duties involving the collection and reporting of receipts, the preparation and recording of disbursements, and bank reconciliations. If segregation of duties is not feasible due to a lack of staff, we recommend the county sheriff implement and document compensating controls to offset this control deficiency in the form of strong oversight from an employee not performing any of those functions.”
The sheriff did not provide an official response to this audit finding, according to the release.
However, the audit noted that according to the sheriff, this condition is the result of a limited budget, which restricts the number of employees the county sheriff can hire and delegate duties to.
This deficiency increases the risk of misappropriation of assets, errors, and inaccurate financial report, the audit stated.
Lack of an adequate segregation of duties is a one of the most common audit finding for small governmental offices with a limited number of staff.
The sheriff’s responsibilities include collecting property taxes, providing law enforcement and performing services for the county fiscal court and courts of justice. The sheriff’s office is funded through statutory commissions and fees collected in conjunction with these duties.
During the 2023 calendar year, the sheriff’s department had total receipts of $2,142,050, which included $305,912 in state fees for services, $704,282 from the fiscal court, $400,741 commission on taxes collected, $12,975 from auto inspections, $53,092 for serving papers, and $176,089 for school resource officers.
The audit report can be found on the auditor’s website by going to https://www.auditor.ky.gov/Auditreports/Whitley/2023WhitleyFES-audit.pdf.
