A good grade for city’s late audit
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The bottom line for the city of Darlington’s newest audit – it’s late, but it’s good.
In January, the office of state Treasurer Curtis Loftis called out Darlington, along with several other Pee Dee towns, for being late in filing their audits for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Last Thursday, City Council met briefly to receive the completed audit from WebsterRogers of Florence. A representative from the company told council the city had gotten a “clean opinion” overall, despite some areas that needed tightening up.
The city is still a fiscal year behind on its audits. City officials said the logjam began about two and a half years ago when Hill and Jordan, the auditing firm that had been working with the city, lost a couple of crucial employees who’d been dealing with Darlington’s audit.
The city switched to another firm, WebsterRogers, but the city still had lost a lot of time in completing its audits.
“These things are slow to recover from,” WebsterRogers’ representative told council.
During their meeting last Thursday, council also held a brief executive session to hear an “economic-development presentation.” The presentation apparently involved a series of PowerPoint images; the windows of the doors leading to the City Hall courtroom where council meets were taped over with paper to block the view of anyone standing in the hallway.
Council took no action during the executive session.
