Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1993 TAG: 9304070170
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PEARISBURG LENGTH: Medium
AUDITORS DECLARE GILES BOOKS IN GOOD SHAPE
The long-awaited audit report on the Giles County Treasurer's Office is in, and it's good.Nearly eight months after auditors first gave up on their annual audit, because of a "general lack of accounting records" in the office of Treasurer Rick Cook, they say the county's books are in shape through the end of fiscal year 1991-92.
Paul Lee, a partner in the accounting firm Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates of Radford, said Tuesday he did not know if the books are in good shape after June 30, 1992. Auditors did not look at financial records after that date, he said.
"I really don't know right now," Lee said when asked about the current state of the treasurer's books.
Lee, speaking after a short presentation on the audit to the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday afternoon, said the audit for the current fiscal year should take place in August.
After the first audit was stopped last August, the county hired a Richmond accountant to reconstruct books for most of the first months of Cook's tenure as treasurer.
The county has paid about $30,000 for professional accounting assistance for the treasurer's office since July 1, county records show.
Lee, responding to questions from supervisors Tuesday, said when auditors returned this year to try a second time to audit the county's books, "the books . . . balanced and worked."
He told a reporter afterward that John Montoro - the Richmond accountant hired by the county to reconstruct the books - had been successful.
Cook did not attend the meeting. Attempts to reach him afterward were unsuccessful.
County Administrator Ken Weaver said he was happy with the audit report and with Montoro's work.
"I think he did an excellent job," he said.
Weaver said the accountant also has been training staff at the Treasurer's Office to do the work themselves, and he is not concerned about the future.
"The books should be in much better shape" than they were a year ago, Weaver said.
A letter released with the audit report listed several recommendations, including printing a delinquent-tax list at the end of the fiscal near.
"We suggest that Treasurer's Office personnel visit other localities" to see how they do it, the letter said.
Lee said there will be no extra charge to the county, even though his firm had to make two attempts to audit the books.
"We ate that," he said of the expense.