Auditors praise city accounting, clerk’s teams for procedural excellence
Lexington-based RFH CPAs delivered another clean audit report at Monday’s Somerset City Council meeting, the eighth in a row for this city managing a budget of nearly $99 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
A clean, or unqualified, opinion means there were no findings in the audit — no recommendations, deficiencies or compliance issues were discovered when reviewing the city’s financial statements, internal controls or federal grant funds received for the 2022-23 fiscal year. For the City of Somerset, this included a review of a $3.4 million loan received from the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority for a water project on Oak Hill Road.
Kevin Fisher, a manager with RFH CPAs, reviewed the clean report with council members, telling them this was the best possible news they could receive. Specifically, as it relates to the city’s internal controls, Fisher applauded the city’s accounting team for what has been a unique no-finding result year after year.
“It’s something to be proud of, I think,” Fisher said. “It’s not typical that I give a report that doesn’t have any findings and I think that speaks to the people you all have in place at the city. And you’ve been fortunate I think that you haven’t had much turnover. It seems like I see a lot of familiar faces when I come every year. So, this is a good report.”
Chief Financial Officer Mike Broyles expressed pride in this audit and the seven before it that have delivered the same news. He attributed the success to teamwork — the accounting department works with the payroll office, utility billing office and city clerk’s office closely to ensure financial procedures are followed. Together, these employees are responsible for bookkeeping processes for nine city departments as well as the sanitation, water, gas and sewer funds and budgets for the waterpark, fuel center, tourism, The Virginia, EMS and the municipal aid program.
“This takes a team effort and I want to especially commend the accounting department, payroll, utility billing and the clerk’s office for their outstanding work and dedication to detail,” Broyles said. “The city couldn’t have this continued success without them.”
Somerset Mayor Alan Keck echoed those sentiments.
“The city is a big business in a lot of ways,” Keck said. “We manage a lot of different things. There’s a lot of money coming in and going out. And there’s no way in the world that another clean, exciting audit could happen this quickly, efficiently or cost-effectively without the outstanding work of our entire accounting team and clerk’s office and their willingness to work together to ensure our financial health stays strong.”
