Report on County

Maui Money Handling Improves

Maui Money Handling

A Honolulu accounting firm has found "significant improvements" in the county government's handling of its own money.

But in a special report, the firm suggested a number of areas in which the County could improve its control over finances.

The firm of Lybrand, Ross Bros. & Montgomery said that since its last audit some four years ago, "significant improvements have been made in the system of internal controls and internal checks".

These include establishment of centralized purchasing and payroll systems, use of electronic data processing and investment of idle cash.

To improve matters, the report said the County should hire its own internal auditor.

This auditor, the report said, could provide a continuous internal audit of all departments as called for by the County charter.

Right now, it said, "no one performs these functions other than cash type audits of the Treasury".

Among other recommendations, the report suggested:

--fidelity bonds be increased on County employees who handle lots of cash;

--the County follow its established procedure of getting three informal bids and documenting these bids for items costing between $100 and $4000;

--the County write an accounting procedures manual;

--money collected by various departments be turned over to the treasury each day.

In addition to its report on County accounting procedures, the Honolulu firm audited the County's financial records for the 1970-71 fiscal year.

The firm carried out its work under a contract providing maximum payment of $75,000 for the report and audit. The actual total cost is expected to run about $60,000, according to County Finance Director Shigeto Murayama.