Photo courtesy of City of Keota social media

A report on the City of Keota’s procedures was released by Auditor of State Rob Sand’s office last week. The agreed-upon procedures engagement was for the period of July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021. There were 12 findings reported with 11 of those being repeated from the prior year’s report. 

The findings and recommendations include oversight by the city council should be an ongoing effort and polices and procedures should be adopted and implemented; segregation of duties with control procedures; monthly bank reconciliations should include all checking and investment accounts; two of five employee timesheets had no evidence of supervisor review and should be signed and reviewed appropriately; the city council or a person designated by the council should review the reconciliations and monitor delinquent accounts; a monthly city clerk’s report should be prepared monthly including a summary of receipts, disbursements, transfers and beginning and ending balances by fund; all disbursements should be approved by council before any checks are written as it was found that four had been written before approval; and investigate alternatives to eliminate the deficit in the Enterprise Sewer Fund. 

In addition, it is recommended that the City should transfer from the Enterprise Sewer Fund to the Debt Service Fund for future funding contributions, and payments on the bonds should be made from the appropriate fund. It was found that disbursements during the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2021 exceeded the amounts budgeted in the community and economic development and business type activities functions prior to the budget amendment and at year end; the auditor’s office outlines that the budget should have been amended in accordance with the Code of Iowa before disbursements were allowed to exceed the budget.