DAYTONA BEACH — As promised in December, state officials are about to launch a targeted operational audit of Daytona Beach’s city government.
On Wednesday, Feb. 11, state auditing officials were slated to hold a meeting at 9 a.m. with city management to discuss the quickly approaching audit that will look at selected areas of operation within the city of Daytona Beach.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia was also scheduled to be in Daytona Beach the morning of Feb. 11 for a public event with local law enforcement officials, including the sheriffs of Volusia and Flagler counties. It’s not clear if Ingoglia also planned to make at stop at Daytona Beach City Hall to discuss the planned audit.
The audit is due to begin in about two weeks, and it could take several months to complete. Once the audit is complete, a report will be issued that will be available to the public.
The audit was sparked by the city’s swelling accumulation of excess permits and licensing fees that ballooned to around $12 million over the past few years. As that tally grew, state officials started monitoring the funds and urged city officials to spend it down to the legal limit of about $4 million, but the city did not.
The city has also come under scrutiny since last fall for its handling of city-issued credit cards that some employees and city commissioners are allowed to use. City employee travel expenses and car allowances have also been probed by the city’s internal auditor in recent months.
The state’s Joint Legislative Auditing Committee made up of state senators and representatives voted 12-0 in early December to have the state audit done as some committee members expressed their concerns about the city’s financial practices.
What will the state audit of Daytona Beach entail?
A letter from the state Auditor General’s office sent to City Manager Deric Feacher, the mayor and city commissioners on Monday, Feb. 9, outlines what’s coming in the audit.
“The purpose of this letter is to establish an understanding of city management’s responsibilities and our responsibilities,” began the letter from state Audit Manager Derek Noonan.
A team of state auditors will be coming to Daytona Beach in March, and Noonan has requested office space and internet access for them.
Noonan wrote that the audit will focus on selected operating units, programs, functions and classes of transactions to evaluate management’s ability to maintain internal controls. That will include controls designed to prevent and detect fraud, waste or abuse.
The probe will also evaluate how well the city’s management administers financial activities in alignment with laws, regulations, contracts, grant agreements and other guidelines.
The audit will also examine reliability of financial records and reports, and the safeguarding of assets.
Noonan’s letter reminded Daytona’s city management that state law mandates they give auditors sufficient information to conduct their examination.
The audit examiners will need access to city records and employees without unnecessary delays, and any obstruction of that will be added to the audit report, he said.
At the conclusion of the audit, city management will be informed of the audit results with a list of preliminary and tentative findings.
The city can provide a written statement of explanation or rebuttal concerning all of the findings, including corrective action to be taken to prevent a repeat of any problems. The final audit report will be a public record.
You can reach Eileen at Eileen.Zaffiro@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: State audit of Daytona Beach’s financial practices to begin soon
Reporting by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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