The Pulaski County government is preparing to adopt internal financial controls, but they’re a bit displeased with the cost associated with the state mandate.
During Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, Pulaski County Attorney Kevin Tankersley revisited the topic. He says that the law requiring the tighter controls on the handling of money needs to be started at some point this year.
“If you start it now, it will probably take a year to get done with this,” says Tankersley.
Pulaski County adopted an ordinance specifying they would be proceeding with the development of internal controls at a meeting in June.
Internal controls are expected to detail how the county handles money and its accounting practices and address loopholes that may make the county susceptible to fraud or theft. Accounting professionals around the state are assisting local governments with the process.
Estimates have put Pulaski County’s cost burden as high as $50-thousand to develop the process. The commissioners were less than enthused with the mandate. Pulaski County Auditor Shelia Garling says budgets could be halted if its not completed in a timely manner.
“They keep adding all this stuff to us, but they keep taking all of our money,” says Garling. “They don’t give us as much as they used to, but they keep expecting us to do all of this.”
Among the tasks required is to define what is a material loss to Pulaski County. Their financial figure would be different from Lake County’s loss totals that would be required for reporting to the state.
The Pulaski County Commissioners intend to start the process in the near future following county council considerations.
