Council panel challenges president on audit request

St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot request to keep parish’s government’s current auditor was rebuffed by the Parish Council’s Administrative-Finance Committee.
In July, Steve Moosa, of Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick, reported the parish government’s annual audit, which had 15 findings.
Also in July, the Council voted to hire Going, Sebastien, Fisher & LeBouef, an Opelousas audit firm, to cleanup parish’s government day-to-day bookkeeping.
Many of the findings in the audit reference sloppy bookkeeping such as miscoding entries.
Moosa said the problems had be to fixed in order to complete the annual audit.
In August, the Council voted to solicit bids for its annual audit, which has been conducted by the Eunice office of Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick for 18 years.
An advertisement for proposals from certified public accounting firms was published on Sept. 7 stating the proposals must be submitted by Sept. 26.
At Wednesday’s committee meeting, Fontenot asked the Council to not hire a new auditor.
“It is bad timing to start off with a new auditor,” he said. “So, for at least one year, I’m suggesting, and, of course, our consultant agrees that ... we cancel that RFP so we can at least get our consultant through his first year ashe questions our auditors basically on a day-to-day basis.”
The committee rejected Fontenot’s request by asking that the Going firm send a letter stating it would be a hardship for it go forward without the current auditing firm.
At an August meeting, Harold Taylor, Parish Council chairman, said adopting a budget and hiring an auditor are two duties assigned to the Council by the home rule charter.
Also in August, Councilman Wayne Ardoin said the Council was spending $10,000 to hire Going, Sebastien, Fisher & LeBouef to review the previous audit’s findings.
Ardoin said Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick was hired at a cost of $18,000, but ended up being paid $94,500.
Moosa said his firm’s additional costs were incurred in straightening out parish government’s bookkeeping errors, which were among the 15 findings of the 2015 audit.