SCRANTON — City council wants to know when Scranton’s overdue 2018 audit will be ready.
As council continues to study Mayor Wayne Evans’ proposed 2020 budget before its December adoption, Councilwoman Mary Walsh Dempsey sent a letter last week to Kohanski & Co. PC, the Moosic firm conducting the audit. The letter reflects council’s waning patience with the audit’s delay.
“(As) we close in on December, with no audit results, even preliminary ones, Council is concerned and troubled,” the letter reads.
It also notes several council members inquired about the audit’s status in recent months.
Another firm, SB & Co., performed the city’s 2017 audit. City Business Administrator David Bulzoni noted last week that Scranton solicited proposals for audit services before awarding the contract to Kohanski. City council approved legislation authorizing the Kohanski contract in late April.
“We went through that process a little later in the year than we would have liked, so they didn’t get started until a little later than we would have wanted,” Bulzoni said, calling the audit a complicated process.
Beyond inputting and evaluating new financial information for the first time, Bulzoni said Kohanski also must restate a relatively minor yet erroneous element of the 2017 audit — an unexpected complication that further slowed down the process.
The error involved a 2006 debt issue the city paid off in 2017, though the 2017 audit prepared by SB & Co. did not indicate the debt issue had been paid, Bulzoni said.
“I think they’ve done a very good job,” Bulzoni said of Kohanski. “I understand that (the audit) is late and certainly everyone would like to have the audit sooner. ... We have been very diligent in trying to move that process along as quickly as possible.”
Scranton’s original request for proposals for audit services notes the city may impose a 10% penalty on the cost of the contract if, at minimum, a draft audit is not delivered by Sept. 30 of the subsequent fiscal year, in this case 2019. Bulzoni does not recommend the city impose that penalty, arguing it should only be levied if there is negligence, which is not the case here.
Dempsey’s letter asks Kohanski to provide a date council can expect the final, complete audit and additional details on the problems with the 2017 audit. It also asks the firm to provide availability for a “post-audit exit report” so council can ask audit-related questions.
The letter also expresses council’s commitment to “maintain transparency and to monitor, assess and review” the city’s finances following ex-Mayor Bill Courtright’s guilty plea to federal corruption charges.
“Timely receipt and prompt review of the audit is a major tool in helping us achieve this goal,” the letter reads.
Bulzoni said the city expects a draft of financial statements in the audit to be available this week and the final audit to be available by the first week of December.
Council introduced an ordinance last week appropriating funds for the proposed 2020 budget. Councilman Kyle Donahue voted against introducing the budget ordinance, arguing council should wait until it receives the city’s 2018 audit.
Council plans to hold a caucus on the proposed 2020 budget Dec. 4, at City Hall.
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