Starke County Auditor Rachel Oesterreich and Council President Dave Pearman recently reviewed line items in the budget and found some in the red that need to be remedied.
Oesterreich said the State Board of Accounts recommended that the council vote to move some money to put those funds into the black. Some of the balances have been carried in the red for several years. The list presented to the council were some of the larger issues reportedly found.
Peaman explained that grant money was received for certain projects that were overspent in those line items.
“We have new instruments in place to prevent that. I mean, that’s one of the requirements of our audit to make sure those kinds of things don’t happen. It was just an oversight at that time,” said Pearman.
He went on to say that sometimes grant money is behind and it’s hard to track. The money is spent before the grant money comes in and he said it’s easy to overspend.
The council members voted to clean up several funds in the amount of $11,647.12 with Rainy Day funds. It had to be a unanimous vote, which occurred. It was said that the money could be returned to the Rainy Day funds by the end of the year.
