Buford school district officials are improperly recording revenues and expenses, according to a recently released audit.
The audit of the school district’s fiscal year 2014 finances, released late Friday by the state Department of Audits and Accounts, found mistakes such as:
• a fund balance for its Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax was off by more $8 million.
• misreporting revenue on its balance sheets resulted in adjustments totaling nearly $3.8 million.
• three accounts were not recorded in the school district’s general ledger.
• accurate financial information was not reported to the school board in a timely manner.
An audit of Buford’s fiscal year 2013 finances found similar mistakes. In both reports, auditors noted problems such as “manual journal entries are not reviewed and approved by a knowledgeable person.” Both audits were done by Maudlin and Jenkins, a firm that does accounting and auditing for about 250 government entities, mostly in the Southeast.
Buford Superintendent Geye Hamby was out of the office Monday afternoon and unavailable for comment, a district official said.
Neither audit suggests any criminal activities by Buford officials. Auditors wrote that Buford did not dispute any of the findings.
The Buford district, which has about 4,330 students, is in north Gwinnett County. Gwinnett voters last month passed a renewal of its SPLOST program that will give Buford an estimated $22 million in a five-year stretch starting in 2017 to pay for various school improvements.
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