Uniontown Redevelopment Authority requests auditor general audit
UNIONTOWN — The city redevelopment authority earlier this month authorized contacting state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale and requesting that his office conduct an independent audit of the authority.
The board made the move in response to what authority Executive Director Mark Rafail said were questions about the length of time it’s taken for the authority’s 2016 audit to be finished.
“Because it’s taken so long to get the audit completed, there’s been some questions, so we are going to squash those questions by having the auditor general come down and review all of our stuff,” Rafail said.
But State Auditor General’s Office Spokesperson Susan Woods said that the auditor general doesn’t have the power to audit redevelopment or municipal authorities. Woods said that “a handful” of authorities have requested audits from the auditor general’s office but added that such requests are not common.
Rafail said that Greensburg-based Opst & Associates LLC took over the task of auditing the authority from Uniontown-based McClure & Wolf last year after McClure & Wolf withdrew from the task.
McClure & Wolf notified the city audit committee and the authority board in an August 2017 letter that entities that the company audits “must be able to designate an individual with suitable skills, knowledge, and experience to perform the financial period closing prior to the audit and oversee all financial statement preparation services.”
“Our services, which we have rendered to the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Uniontown have revealed that the authority has not fulfilled this requirement,” McClure & Wolf stated in the letter, noting several accounting matters requiring immediate attention, including balancing all interfund loans between various restricted grant funds, adjusting beginning equity to agree with prior-year audited financial statements and making entries necessary for proper revenue recognition to conform with generally accepted accounting principles.
Rafail said that McClure & Wolf could not be reached following the letter for further explanation.
McClure & Wolf could not be reached for comment for this article.
The firm remains the auditor for the city’s Downtown Business District Authority (UDBDA), the Uniontown Public Library and the city itself, according to City Clerk Kim Marshall. She said the 2016 audits are complete for those entities.
Rafail said he anticipated the 2016 and 2017 audits to be done much quicker with Opst & Associates as auditor and Kisiel & Associates as accountant in place, adding that it took longer for McClure & Wolf to audit the authority since it was responsible for the city’s other component units as well.
The redevelopment authority in April 2017 formally accepted an audit report for the year 2015. That report by McClure & Wolf stated that amounts recorded for numerous grant expense transactions in the general ledger did not agree to the activity reported to funding agencies and that other inaccuracies resulted in several expenses being initially paid out of incorrect funding streams.
The report also identified several transactions for administrative costs that were paid directly out of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, which had historically been allocated as indirect costs between this program as well as other programs which support administrative costs.
The audit report noted that the authority acknowledged its finding and the board has hired a new staff member to be responsible for data entry and management of authority files under Rafail’s supervision. The report also noted that Rafail, who took over as executive director in 2014, has attended several trainings by the Department of Community and Economic Development that provided information on proper cost allocation principles.
The 2015 audit report followed a 2014 audit report accepted by the board in September 2015 detailing the consequences of poor record-keeping and grant oversight by the authority. Clayton Gregg IV, a certified public accountant for McClure & Wolf, noted that the authority lost out on thousands of dollars in state funding due to what Gregg called a previous “lack of internal control over financial reporting” that occurred under Rafail’s predecessor.
Marshall said that Teresa Hann, a former secretary and controller for the authority, was terminated in 2014 for data entry errors that resulted in unreliable funding figures and uninformed funding decisions.
Rafail’s predecessor as executive director was Mark Yauger, who led the authority amid all data entry errors made up until Jan. 2014, when he resigned to serve as executive director of the Fayette County Housing Authority.
Gregg told the authority in September 2015 it was “now operating the way a redevelopment authority should.”
In other business, the board authorized Rafail to assist the city with a city-wide neighborhood cleanup to be held May 12 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., when dumpsters will be available near the sewage treatment plant next to 84 Lumber on Romeo Lane.
Rafail said that hard-to-recycle items such as electronics, gasoline, paint and tires will not be accepted, and that participants must show proof of city residence.
Rafail said he is planning the event and running event details past Marshall for approval.
He also announced that the UDBDA is holding a sidewalk sale and flea market celebrating the 200th anniversary of the National Road on May 19 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The sidewalk sales will be throughout the downtown business district, while the flea market will be in the parking lot adjacent to the Fayette County Public Service Building (the 911 lot) and in Storey Square. Hot dogs, soda, water and chips will be available, and those interested in flea market or vendor space can email Erica Miller at emiller@statetheatre.info. There is no cost to participate but pre-registration is required.