The Erath County Commissioners Court recently received some good news – the county’s books are closer to being reconciled.
Treasurer Kimberley Barrier gave an update at the Nov. 14 meeting through her monthly treasurer’s report.
“The treasurer’s books and the auditor’s general ledger—they are almost there- to agreeing,” she said.
Barrier went over details of an analysis report.
“Mark Kaiser that was appointed by District Judge Jason Cashon several months back at the end of June has been in helping, trying to get the books straightened out so he has come up with this report to show the financial standing of the county,” Barrier said.
Barrier explained that each fund was listed out separately including the claims on cash, where all the different funds are claimed in the back account.
“You should be able to add all those funds together and they equal your bank account,” she said. “That was the issue we were having, those were not balancing. They are finally balancing.”
Barrier also included a memo to update the court and the public about what is going on.
In November 2020, the auditor’s and treasurer’s office began using the Tyler Technology’s InCode 10 Financial Software.
“The auditor is in charge of the general ledger of the financial software and on numerous occasions we have spoke about the discrepancies in balances that have occurred since July 2020 and during the software conversion,” Barrier said.
All discrepancies have been reported in the monthly treasurers report since July 2020.
“These issues have remained unresolved, never corrected, by the auditor for over two years now. After the discovery in 2020, after testimony was given by myself during the temporary hearing to have me removed from office, which was dropped by District Attorney Alan Nash, and after Rick Baker, who was hired by the commissioners court to verify and ensure the accuracy of the bank reconciliations were deemed and proved accurate as to the funds cash balances.”
Barrier stated that the audit for 2021 has not been completed although an engagement letter was completed in February 2022 for BMY to start the audit in March and have the report available in June.
Due to Auditor Kent Reeves being out for three months due to personal reasons, Barrier reached out to representatives from BMY about the 2021 audit.
“Finally, after voicing audit and budget concerns in my meeting with Mr. Shell [of BMY] District Judge Jason Cashon on June 6, 2022, he began to seek assistance due to the county auditor’s absence,” she said.
On June 27, 2022, Mark Kaiser CPA was appointed as assistant auditor to help the auditor’s office with his duties. Kaiser’s primary focus was the 2021 audit and preparing the books for the audit. He was released from the work by the district judge on Aug. 31 and is currently not under contract with the county.
“The completion of the 2021 audit and 2022 audit will hopefully provide insight as to accurate financial books for Erath County,” Barrier said.
Kaiser also spoke at the meeting.
“We are almost there,” he said. “Just so you understand, they were reconciled manually. We needed to get the computer to match the manual, and we have done that. It is done.”
Kaiser pointed out how important this was because with outgoing public officials, which both Barrier and County Judge Alfonso Campos are, they need to have a good hand off.
“You now have a good hand off because you now have $35 million that has been identified and matched both manually and within the computer systems,” he said. “Now it has taken a lot of time and a little bit of history of course, both good and bad throughout this process.”
Kaiser said that both the treasurer and the auditor had confirmed these numbers and he felt comfortable moving on with finalizing the audit.
Kaiser explained that they had to get the cash balances right so they knew what the good balances are before moving into the audit.
“Now that we have that, we can complete the 2021 audit, they’ve already started it, but it’s not finished,” he said. “I will tell you, and I believe, and I’m being asked to kind of assist with everyone to complete and let’s get a timely file and get current with our audits – ‘21 and ‘22 audits.”
He said with both the ’21 and ’22 audits completed, outgoing elected officials would be able to say that they left the county in good financial condition.
“We will have the audit, the treasurer’s report, auditor’s report, everything saying the same thing and I believe we are just about there,” he said.
“The books are in good shape. The biggest issue has been bank reconciliations in a timely manner. In July of 2022, we were doing February of 2021 bank reconciliations. The county is in good shape financially,” Auditor Kent Reeves said, in a phone call with the Citizen.