Everett overcharged the Federal Transit Administration $77,000 for work on a North Everett bus station last year, the State Auditor’s Office found.
A routine audit of three federal grants found “significant deficiencies” in how the city oversees federal transit grants.
The state concluded that the city’s process for checking the accuracy of federal reimbursement requests was insufficient.
The city concurred with the state’s finding, which was issued on Aug. 11.
Council President Brenda Stonecipher, a certified public accountant, said the city has taken steps improve the accuracy of reimbursement requests. The steps include changing the font on financial reports so that they are more readable.
The city’s finance department would have caught the mistake and refunded the money had the audit not taken place, she said.
“It’s the kind of thing that the auditor showed up before staff noticed it,” Stonecipher said.
Debra Bryant, the city’s chief financial officer, did not return calls seeking comment.
State Auditor Brian Sonntag’s spokeswoman, Mindy Chambers, said the inaccuracy is being treated as a simple accounting error. The finding did not trigger inspections of other federal revenue sources, Chambers said.
However, the state will follow up to make sure the city improves its accounting methods, she said.
Paul Griffo, spokesman for the Federal Transit Administration, said the city made good on the mistake by requesting $77,000 less in reimbursements this year.
“Anywhere there’s a human element, there’s going to be errors in accounting, so we rectify those as quickly as we can, and in this case it was a fairly easy procedure,” he said.
The discrepancy won’t jeopardize future funding from the transit administration, Griffo said.
A separate audit of selected parts of the city’s $359 million annual budget found that Everett complied with state laws and had sufficient safeguards to protect public assets.
In 2003, the state found that the city lacked a proper screening process for hiring contractors on projects that use federal funding.
The city did not ensure that contractors it hired were qualified to work on federally funded projects. The city has since changed its screening process, Chambers said.
“These regulation requirements can be complex,” she said. “It’s not unusual for a city or county or anybody that uses federal money to have findings in these areas.”
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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