By Sarah Opdahl

New Fairfield’s Board of Finance (BOF) met on Wednesday, July 19. They heard an update on the ten recommendations issued in the Town’s annual audit by PFK O’Connor Davies. Town Finance Director Ms. Olga Melnikov explained that no majo r weaknesses were identified, but there are areas of improvement for the Business Office to continue to progress on or begin addressing and she said, “we still have some work to do.” The recommendations are based on risk assessments and offer ways to shore up internal processes for staff who work most closely with money and was described in the report as identifying “opportunities to strengthen internal control, improve operating efficiency or upgrade policies and procedures to best practices.”

First, the accounts payable clerk position currently can enter new vendors into the financial software system. While there are compensating controls in effect, the auditors recommend restricting this position from having the ability to enter new vendors into the system. Next, the payroll clerk can add new employees and update pay rates in the payroll software, but auditors recommend that this activity be restricted “from the ability to change employee pay rates.” They suggest that an employee other than the one who processes payroll should be responsible for entering new employees and distributing checks. Melnikov explained that this item will remain outstanding due to “limited staff,” saying, “We need access to all of the fields to process payroll.”

Another recommendation is for the Town to record the credit card payments that are made to Parks and Recreation. Parks and Recreation revenue for cash and checks is recorded based on the register report, while the credit card sales are recorded from the credit card report. The auditors’ noted that at the time of their testing, “the amount on the credit card report did not agree with the register report.” This item has been addressed, Melnikov said.

Regarding medical claims, the Town does not currently review the detailed monthly claim report to ensure only eligible employees’ claims are paid, which the auditors think they should do. Right now, they are reviewing an aggregate report. In addition, they recommended that the claims be reviewed and reported to the state with Town or education employee status noted.

The auditors recommended closing out as many deficit fund balances as possible. These include the Meeting House Hill School Renovation of a decade ago and the renovation of the NFHS soon-to-be-demolished science wing. Melnikov explained that it is very difficult to close out projects with the state.

In another recommendation explanation, Melnikov noted the general fund checking account has many outstanding checks that date back to 2002. The auditors recommend investigating writing off errors and reissuing checks. There was some discus sion about transferring the responsibility of these to the state, but logistically it would be very difficult to do so.

During the auditors’ testing, they noted that reconciliation of accounts receivable and unearned revenue balances for education grants needs to be included in the year end closing process and properly updated on June 30. They also recommended that parents be given a receipt when they pay for student activities. Melikov said the business manager for the Board of Education is collaborating with her team to address this item. The auditors also recommended that the Director of Business and Operations be an authorized signer on the student activity bank accounts.

Melnikov said that the auditors’ recommendations to implement “a pooled cash system and eliminate interfund transactions and to properly report the cash balance for each fund,” were addressed.

There was an update from Tax Collector Ms. Shareen Langdon, who explained that all tax bills would be sent in the coming week. She noted that payments are already coming in, as residents can access their fees and pay online. She issued an end-of-year report to the BOF that serves as “a snapshot of what happened in the Tax Office for the year.” The report also serves as supplemental information in the auditor’s report. Langdon noted that this year’s report will have a drastically lower ending balance than it has in the past, since tax bills were issued so much later than normal.

The next regular Board of Finance meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 16, 7:30 p.m.