Cape school board still awaits audit

Cape Girardeau school board members have yet to see the audit report of the school district's finances for the past fiscal year, even though board policy required them to approve it three months ago.

Brenda McCowan, finance director for the school system, has a draft copy of the audit for the 2005-2006 fiscal year, which ended June 30, but she's holding onto it for now.

McCowan said she's waiting to give copies of the audit to the school board until the district's financial report for the 2004-2005 fiscal year has been corrected to comply with Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requirements.

Missouri's public school districts annually submit financial reports to the state's education agency, which reviews the data and identifies any financial discrepancies or errors. DESE also requires school districts to submit audit reports, but only every other year.

DESE found some errors in the 2004-2005 financial report. "We've been working with the auditor and the state trying to get it rectified," McCowan said. "The errors are very inconsequential things, nothing major whatsoever."

For example, the school district listed its railroad and utility tax money under one account code. The state wanted it listed under a different account code, she said.

The district and its auditor make some changes only to have DESE indicate that other changes are needed, McCowan said. "You correct one error, and it creates two others," she said. "We have worked off and on on it all last year."

McCowan said school officials don't want to present the latest audit report to the school board until errors from the previous financial report have been corrected. Otherwise, the district would face the possibility of having to revise the audit report later to fit the same format as the financial report, she said.

"We didn't want to present it until we felt confident all the figures matched those of the state," said McCowan, who took over as finance director in July 2005.

McCowan said she expects to present the audit to the school board this month. "We are down to three small edits," she said.

Under school district policy, the school board is supposed to approve the audit report by Oct. 31 each year, board member Charles Bertrand said.

The school district spent $14,200 for the latest annual audit, he said. The audit needs to be approved so that work can proceed on the budget for the coming fiscal year.

"You have got to have clear numbers. That is how you set a budget," he said.

Bertrand said board members need to know what's in the audit. He questioned why it should take DESE so long to address financial issues from two years ago.

"I think the state should act quicker," he said.

DESE officials had no immediate comment.

Board president Sharon Mueller said the school district isn't to blame for the delay. "It is not due to anything on our end," she said.

McCowan said most school districts, like Cape Girardeau, do annual audits, but under state law they only have to conduct audits and submit them to DESE in the odd-numbered years.

In those years, districts by law must approve audits by Oct. 31, she said. But since the latest audit occurred in an even-numbered year, the delay in getting the report to the school board won't cause any problem with DESE, she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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