Audits reflect no accounting issues

Notes from recent legislative audits:

St. Landry Government
The parish spent more than it received in the year ending Dec. 31, 2013, but ended the period with fund balances on hand, according to the audit issued this month.
Revenues totaled $10.42 million and expenses were $11.48 million. About $5.2 million of the spending was Road & Bridge and Health expenditures secured by dedicated funding.
General Fund income was paced by property taxes, $1.73 million; state severance tax, $834,000; and video poker, $511,000.
Road and Bridge revenue was led by the slots tax, $1.6 million; state transportation fund, $854,000; and Solid Waste Commission income, $331,000.
The Health tax provided $1.23 million.
General Fund spending was led by general government, $4.4 million, and public safety, $1.2 million.
Public works at $3.67 million paced the Road & Bridge spending.
Health and welfare, $1.37 million, was the leading expense in the health fund.
The parish was able to cover the deficits with accumulated surplus from prior years.
End-of-year fund balances:
General Fund, $2.74 million;
Road and Bridge, $13,534;
Health, $1.3 million.
Auditors noted continuing miscoding problems with posting to the various accounts.

District attorney
The St. Landry Parish District Attorney’s Office spent more than it received in the year ending Dec. 31, but ended the period with a fund balance of a half million dollars.
Auditors reported $2.99 million in General Fund revenue, with $3.09 in expenses, and $521,000 in a Special FIV-D fund, with expenses of $562,000.
The IV-D Fund accounts for grants received from the Louisiana Department of Social Services, a pass-through agency, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, authorized by Act 117 of 1975, to establish family and child support programs compatible with Title IV-D of the Social Security Act for the provision of child support services. The purpose of the fund is to enforce the support obligation owed by absent parents to their children, to locate absent parents, to establish paternity, and to obtain child and spousal support.
After transfers from the General to the Special accounts, the net operating General Fund deficit was $206,000 and the net operating margin in the special account was $113,667.
The General Fund balance on Jan. 1, 2013 was $657,425; it was $451,310 on Dec. 31. The Special Fund stood at $467 on Jan. 1 of last year and at $73,412 at year’s end, creating a total fund balance of $524,711 as 2014 began.
Commissions on fines and bond forfeitures contributed $1.8 million in General Fund revenue; personal and contracted services accounted for $1.7 million ($972.000 salaries; $468,000 fringe benefits; $295,000 contracted services) in expenses. Payments to other governmental entities took another $611,000.
About $375,000 of the $587,000 Special Fund expenses was for salaries.
Auditors noted no weaknesses or deficiencies in the audit.

Assessor
The St. Landry Parish Assessor’s Office had revenues of $1.30 million and expenses of $1.09 million in the year ending Dec. 31, 2013. The $212,000 change brought the office’s fund balance on that date to $2.34 million.
Property taxes provided $1.14 million of the office’s revenue and office and administrative expenses of $1.07 million were the bulk of the spending.
Salaries were the big-ticket spending item at $614,000. Insurance and retirement benefits accounted for another $318,000.
The auditors noted no accounting deficiencies or weakness issues in their report.

Coroner
The St. Landry Parish Coroner’s Office took in $252,000 in the year ending Dec. 31, 2013, and spent the same amount.
Income was from the parish, $172,000; other governments, $40,000; and racino revenue, $40,000.
Services fees, $198,000, lead the spending.
Auditors issues no findings of material weaknesses of deficiencies in the office’s accounting.