HELENA-WEST HELENA — The mayor of Helena-West Helena says an apparent misunderstanding has led to delays in meeting the request of state auditors to turn over certain financial records.
A legislative committee has given the city an ultimatum - hand over the records or risk a reduction in state turnback funds - after auditors said the city repeatedly failed to produce the records in the course of a routine state audit.
Mayor James Valley said, "It's a serious matter," adding that he expects to satisfy the requests by late November or early December. He said he has appointed a deputy city clerk to go through each item requested by the auditors and each item provided to them.
Valley said there apparently was "some misunderstanding" about what information was requested by auditors and what information was provided by city officials.
"It hasn't been a hostile situation where we declined to give documents," Valley said.
Pat Williams, who works in the Monticello office of the state Division of Legislative Audit, told The Daily World newspaper in Helena-West Helena last week that auditors have tried repeatedly to access city documents on 2006 spending, but were turned away.
Williams said the state has been trying to access the records since January.
Also, the Arkansas State Police seized one of the city's hard drives as part of the effort to access the documents.
"We are just doing a routine audit," Assistant Legislator Auditor Jerry Spratt said.
Spratt told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Monday that auditors have obtained the majority of the requested records from Helena-West Helena officials. Records that remain missing include some bank statements and reconciliations, receipts, journals, and a few canceled checks, he said.
In an Oct. 15 letter to the mayor and other city officials, the co-chair of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee warned officials that state turnback funds would be withheld if the records were not made available within 90 days.
"Continued noncompliance with the provisions of the municipal accounting law will ultimately result in the city becoming ineligible to receive any state turnback funds," wrote Sen. Randy Laverty, D-Jasper, and Rep. J.R. Rogers, D-Walnut Ridge.
Turnback money includes taxes collected by the state and distributed to cities and counties. Helena-West Helena received $950,404 in turnback funds last year and $780,447 in the first 10 months of this year, said Debbie Rogers of the state Treasurer's Office.
If the committee notifies the Treasurer's Office to begin withholding turnback, she said, the office would withhold half of the monthly payments to Helena-West Helena. This month, Helena-West Helena received about $74,000, according to state records.