Parish Council revisits audit issues with Moosa

The St. Landy Parish Council revisited an audit finding on about $1,400 in credit card charges cited because there was supporting receipts
The council also asked Parish President Bill Fontenot to explain funding for a map system.
The credit charge was found to be a legitimate charge by Fontenot and Steve Moosa, CPA, who presented the audit by Darnall, Sikes Gardes & Frederick at the June 17 Parish Council meeting.
“It is something I would like a perfect score on, but there were a few receipts that were not turned in,” Fontenot said.
Moosa said there were about $134,000 in charges during the audit year that ended Dec. 31, 2014, and auditors examined about $50,000 in charges.
Moosa has said the $1,400 in charges appear to be legitimate, but, he said, “It probably could have been passed on as verbal comment, but I decided to put it in as a written comment.”
The written finding on the credit card charge was meant to to draw attention to the finding since it has been issue for three to four years, he said.
Fontenot said the charges do show up on the credit card bill and the lack of a receipt “doesn’t mean anybody is stealing anything.”
Pam Gautreau, District 8 councilwoman, said the person who did not turn in receipts should pay the bill.
At the June 17 council meeting, Moosa had been asked to return to explain how parish government employees had progressed remedying audit findings, particularly miscodings.
But his July 1 visit to the Administrative-Finance Committee meeting veered into credit card receipts.
Another issue was how much the auditing firm is paid.
Moosa said the contract was for $67,000, but the audit firm staff was called to assist with coding errors, which were explained as a problem from parish government staff turnover in 2014.
The errors cost parish government about $20,000 in additional audit staff work, Moosa said.
Wayne Ardoin, District 9 councilman, said the audit firm billed the parish about $100,000, but Moosa said the total billing included audits for parish government’s component units such as tourism, Ag Arena and Workforce Investment Board.
The parish president also explained the $52,000 cost of a GIS map and its usefulness.
The map is being developed by Map Analyst, a Fenstermaker company, and is being done in conjunction with St. Landry Parish Economic Development, which has agreed to pay half of the cost.
Parish government will pay its share of the cost out of its general fund, Fontenot said.
“I feel it is very progressive on the parish government’s part ...” he said.
“This GIS mapping system will pay for itself within a year,” Fontenot said. The system will be available for use by public officials and the citizens.
Fontenot compared the GIS mapping, which is accessed by the public through the Internet, to buying software.
“It is a very valid expenditure and one that the parish cannot do without in order to be progressive and competitive,” Fontenot said.
GIS — Geographic Information System — is a technology that provides information in a map format
The computer map offers data such as taxes, events such as festivals, utilities, property ownership, zoning, legal status of property, soil type as well as roads and political boundaries.