The county’s auditing firm will perform a comprehensive analysis of the health department’s funds for the past four fiscal years, Deputy County Manager Christina Wells told commissioners today.
Last July, the health department made a formal request for the return of a cumulative $6,013,570 that had been reallocated to the county’s general fund through previous budget amendments.
“The analysis would include pretty much five components,” Wells said.
Those five components are:
An analysis of the total value of accumulated earned revenue
A review of earned revenues from health department programs
An identification of carry-forward amounts — unspent earnings — by program
A comparison of earned revenue by program to expenditures by program
An assessment of any potential reversion of county funds
The auditing firm Mauldlin & Jenkins will perform the analysis at a cost of $49,770, which commissioners voted to draw from the contingency fund.
Wells said the firm wants to study four — and possibly five — years of the books to establish a pattern based on the retention schedule for these documents. “At that point, if we need to go back further after that, then we can consider doing that.”
She said M&J “feels strongly this will give us a good picture of what’s going on with the funding.”
Wells noted the analysis would be an all-hands effort, similar to the firm's approach during the county’s annual audit process. That would include the finance department, the health department, and possibly the legal department.
“They’re not going to be able to do this for you unless they engage with the health department,” County Attorney Glynn Rollins said. “We are absolutely going to have to involve the cooperation and engagement of the health department, finance, the county manager, and the legal department.”
He said the auditor's recommendation is “let’s not try to bite off the whole 10, 12, or however many years back. Let’s go back to the first four or five years and see what’s there. We might be able to extrapolate before we get into looking back at records that are harder to find.”
