Auditor outlines issues
WASHINGTON TWP. – The township’s municipal authority is coming under more questioning about an employee’s overtime payments. Several township residents claimed last month that an authority employee had made $60,000 in overtime last year.
During its meeting Tuesday, Myron Sepitko said the authority’s office manager and board secretary Judy Arrow received the overtime, claiming she approved it for herself.
Arrow, who resigned as board secretary Tuesday but remained a member of the board, said she did not receive any overtime during 2003, 2004, or 2005, but in 2006, she did receive more than $40,000 in overtime, which was board approved, because she had to meet more demands than usual.
“If you want to see my timecards, you are welcome to come to the office and do so,” Arrow said.
Chairman Melvin Weiss told the public last month that there is an investigation being done by attorney Timothy Maatta of Monessen, and he said the board was unable to comment further on the issue because it was a personnel matter.
Weiss said at Tuesday’s meeting of the authority that the 2006 audit will not be finished until May. For now, auditor Edward Savarno suggested that the board make the following changes.
He recommended that the board eliminate signature stamps for checks because in some cases only one actual signature had been used, and Weiss said the board had already stopped using the signature stamps before receiving that recommendation.
Savarno said that the board should monitor overtime more closely, and residents wondered why that was a concern if there were no problems reflected in the audit.
Savarno said in his report that “there are no controls for overtime use by the office manager since she is approving her own overtime.”
The auditor also said that preparation and review of monthly expense statements should detail actual results verses budget results because with the board’s current practices, it was hard to tell if they were under or over the budget for the year.
He also said there should be a written policy to address conflicts of interest between authority employees and board members for products and services.
The board was advised to discuss such conflicts at monthly meetings.
The auditor called for creation of a petty cash log, and he said that proceeds received from scrap material sales were placed in the petty cash fund, but not logged as sales revenue.
Savarno suggested reducing bank accounts to three, which should include a general fund account, payroll account and security deposit account. He said the board should use vacation payment tracking forms and review them on a quarterly basis.
Savarno also recommended that the board log uncollected accounts as “bad debt expenses” and the write off of accounts that could not be collected was booked against sales rather than a bad debt expense account.
Dee Fisher said she could not understand so many recommended changes for an audit that passed favorably.
“That’s not the way audits work,” said Fisher. “There has to be a problem for a recommendation.”
Weiss said that while the auditor recommended changes, and the board would be certain to follow each one, there were no problems reflected in the audit.
“Nothings appears to be wrong in these audits,” said Weiss. “The 2006 audit is separate all together. That will be dealt with when it is completed. Right now the auditor is just recommending that we have more control over the expenses.”
Weiss said that he could guarantee that the board would follow all the recommendations that were made, and the board would closely watch all expenses from now on.
In other matters, John Yetsconish, chairman of the board of supervisors, submitted a letter he received from the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, which expressed interest in buying the township’s water company.
In the letter, the county authority said they could provide water service to all township residents and Yetsconish said the authority would be prepared to handle future growth.
The township municipal authority is currently working on a project that would cost roughly $4.5 million and would expand water lines to a small portion of the township that does not have water service, as well as areas of Long Branch, which is nearby.
Engineer Dave Kerchner said the plan does not accommodate future growth.
Local resident Jamie Miller said she thought whatever option would provide all the township’s residents with water service would be best, and she wondered why it took so long to bring up Westmoreland County if it had always been an option.
Yetsconish said that the possibility of selling to Westmoreland County was just now being brought to light by the county, and he encouraged the authority to consider the option.
The board decided to table making a decision, because Supervisor Chuck Yusko said that he had not yet seen the letter from the county, and Weiss said that all the supervisors should be aware of the offer before a decision is made.