Finding sent to AG after Estill Fiscal Court audit completed

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – A state audit of the Estill County Fiscal Court for the budget year that ended June 30, 2019 has produced a number of concerns, including one being forwarded to the attorney general’s office for further investigation because of the potential for wrongdoing.

“Audit evidence indicated intentional override of internal controls by management and employees that had a potentially material effect on the financial statement. The Estill County Fiscal Court had serious weaknesses in the operation of its internal control procedures and failed to implement effective oversight and review procedures to prevent and detect errors, misstatements, and fraud in the county’s financial activities,” State Auditor Mike Harmon said in a statement (estill 2019 audit).

“The absence of effective internal controls, oversight, and review procedures created an environment in which funds were misappropriated and financial records were manipulated. Based on these conditions, we determined the fraud risk to be too high and were unable to apply other procedures to mitigate this risk. The significant of these issues, in the aggregate, prevents us from placing reliance on the financial activities contained in the Estill County Fiscal Court’s Fourth Quarter Financial Statement and from expressing an opinion on the financial statement of the Estill County Fiscal Court,” Harmon continued,, adding, “finding 6 of the audit report will be referred to the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General.”