RALEIGH — Edgecombe County officials have pushed back on a recent audit published by the office of State Auditor Beth Wood.
The published audit was conducted in response to 13 allegations received by the state auditor’s office.
The audit had multiple findings including:
- Late submission of federal withholdings to the IRS racked up $167,602 in penalties and fees.
- County manager overrode policy when purchasing catering services totaling $5,669.
- Monthly bank reconciliation for disbursing and trust accounts was incomplete.
Paid $100,088 for insurance for former employees. - Overpayment to 12 employees totaling $21,983 (Jan. 2020 through Dec. 2021).
- No approval from the county board or commissioners for adding 26 budget amendments totaling $9.6 million during the 2021 fiscal year.
In its seven-page response, Edgecombe County Commissioners acknowledged most of the findings but added context to some and “emphatically” denied the finding on budget amendments.
The audit report called most of the responses by Edgecombe officials “misleading.”
In the case of the fees and penalties, officials cited having to use fax machines to transmit the data, which sometimes resulted in incomplete submissions, and also cited the reversal of some of the penalty fees.
“The IRS has not assessed any penalties against Edgecombe County since the fourth quarter of 2020, and the county is currently in compliance with all IRS requirements,” the officials for the county wrote.
The commissioners disagreed with the audit’s findings that the county manager had overridden certain policies or procedures involving the $5,669 in catering services and that the county rotates through various catering vendors throughout the year.
Regarding the audit’s claim that the county had “26 budget amendments totaling $9.6 million” for fiscal year 2021 without approvals, the commissioners responded by saying, “This is simply not true.”
“Again, to be clear, the Board did approve 24 of the 26 budget amendments noted in the report, and the Board was aware of the two grant-funded projects related to the remaining two budget amendments,” the Edgecombe response reads. “Therefore, the Board emphatically denies the report’s conclusion in this finding that $9.6 million was entered in the County’s financial system without approval by the Board and Commissioners.”
