Fairfield County has a financial emergency on its hands with an IRS fines crisis that seems to have no ending. Is this crisis a harbinger of more issues to come?
Indeed, a serious council would have called for an emergency meeting to launch the process for RFPs for a forensic audit, initiate corrective actions, draft tighter spending controls and account for the IRS fine expenditures via a budget amendment.
Clearly, it’s time for the county to listen to the people and diligently solicit RFPs to move forward with a full forensic county audit. That’s the only path to restoring trust in the county’s financial reporting after three consecutive years of missed audit deadlines and a plethora of other issues including the recent IRS $1.4 million calamity.
Additionally, a full forensic audit would support a more productive and predictive budget. It’s the only way forward.
Council must not assume normal professional protocols will always be followed. Clear controls must be in place to ensure they and citizens are not vulnerable to even more costly mishaps.
The county still has not amended the budget to account for the surprise $1.4 million in IRS fines. Now is not the time to compound our accounting troubles.
Randy Bright
Ridgeway
