City audit delayed by paperwork

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Pearsall city councilors learned last week that the 2021 fiscal audit would be delayed until the end of the month due to pending documents from the municipal administration.
Robert Carter, certified public accountant with Leal and Carter, the independent auditing firm hired by the city, provided councilors with a draft audit during a meeting on Tuesday, June 30.
In the seven-page report, Leal did not present any findings or opinions but said the final audit would not be completed until two reports from the city administration were submitted.
“We need to get a supplemental schedule required for the USDA loan and a management analysis discussion report,” Carter said.
Councilor Davina Rodriguez quizzed City Manager Federico Reyes over the projected timeline of the needed documents.
“We should have them by next week,” the city manager said.
The city manager said in a telephone interview Monday that the reports had been completed and he anticipates the final audit being presented at a July 26 meeting.
Carter said the city received a USDA grant during the 2021 fiscal year and a requirement of the loan is a supplemental schedule that splits the water and sewer accounts. The management analysis discussion is a summary of what the audit is and entails the good and bad of the city’s finances.
“I am happy to get the audit,” Mayor Ben Briscoe said. “We are sill a little ahead of schedule of where we have been before. This is the first step to get the full audit.”
The city has not been in compliance with state or Home Rule Charter guidelines for audits since 2019.
“This is just a general purpose audit,” Carter said. “It is not a compliance audit. We give an opinion over the financial state and we give an opinion over the control side. On the control side we do quite a bit of the work, so we have issued findings and we are running behind because we do a lot of the reconciliation.”