Dilly grills VCAD board over independent audit
Nevada Daily Mail
During its regular monthly meeting Thursday night, the Vernon County Ambulance District board was peppered with questions from Vernon County resident Dan Dilly of the Deerfield-area. The board allowed Dilly to go well over his allotted two minutes, as he essentially cross-examined the board over its independent audit for nearly 25 minutes.
"I'm here as a taxpayer," Dilly said. "I'm not here to point fingers."
Dilly's primary concern was in relation to the district's accounting firm, DSWA, led by B.G. Wolfe C.P.A., who is in the process of completing a review of the district's financial status. In late-2015, the district tasked the firm to conduct a thorough audit of the finances, management practices and information management practices of the district. Wolfe, who was present at the meeting, told the board he had recently turned over his findings to the Missouri Highway Patrol for investigation. Wolfe however, did not appear at the meeting until shortly after Dilly concluded his comments.
"The (Daily Mail) reported that there's an independent audit going on," Dilly said. "And it's my understanding that the person that is doing the audit is the (same person) that has done (VCAD's) audits in past years."
Board chairperson Mark Humphrey confirmed that Wolfe's firm had done previous audits for VCAD.
"To me, that's not an independent (review)," Dilly said. "If (DSWA) has had connections to the board and to the ambulance district --that's not independent."
Humphrey told Dilly that DSWA's work is limited to audits, and nothing more for VCAD.
"The only thing that their firm does for us -- is an audit," Humphrey said. "As far as year-to-year operations for the district, they're not involved with that in any way."
Dilly then suggested there might be a possible conflict of interest between VCAD and Wolfe's firm.
"If (DSWA) has been doing (audits for VCAD) for several years, then they have an idea of what's going on," Dilly said. "They're close to the situation, even if it's just once a year."
Dilly told the board that the Missouri State Auditor needs to get involved.
"They not only come in and do an audit for that year," Dilly said," but if there are discrepancies they will go back (and find them)."
Dilly said a state audit would lend more credibility to the board and the district, because then "the state is actually in charge of the audit."
"I don't care how this (independent) audit comes out," Dilly said. "There's always going to be doubt. There's going to be doubt in the taxpayers' minds. But if the state does it, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it."
Dilly was armed with a state-audit pamphlet he referred to several times. Dilly said if a state-audit turns up discrepancies or fraud, than it would get turned over to legal authorities.
"And that gets the onus off y'alls back," Dilly said. "If there was anything illegal going on, than that office contacts the authorities," he said.
Humphrey responded to Dilly's independent audit assertions.
"That's the way the independent audit works," Humphrey said, "the (DSWA) findings do not come to us directly. It goes to legal counsel, which then goes to the prosecuting attorney and authorities. Rather than come to us for us to make a decision on where that goes -- it's out of our hands at that point. We actually find out about it at the tail-end and not at the beginning."
Humphrey told Dilly that VCAD's last audit came during the budget year 2012-13, running from July 1 to June 30 of the following year.
"From July 1 of '13 until June of '14, and July of '14 until June of '15 is the two years that have not been audited. Those are the two years that are in question (with the IRS lien), Humphrey said."
Humphrey said prior to the two budget years currently under scrutiny, that the district "had no issues at all in that regard."
"One issue with hiring an independent auditor is that (DSWA) is the only firm that we're aware of around this area that can do an audit," Humphrey said. "Not all CPA firms are auditors, but all auditors are CPA's so-to-speak."
Board vice-chairperson Chris Mason said there are two ways to have a state audit conducted. He said one was by petition, requiring a specific amount of signatures, and the other was if a government entity or the VCAD board requested a separate state-audit, "which the district has to pay for."
Board member Darrell Hillier responded to Dilly.
"I don't think you realize, we didn't have any money," he said. "We were totally broke. And we have never had any trouble with this firm ever before. If (DSWA) does something wrong or tries to cover up something, they'll be in trouble."
"I understand that" Dilly said. "That's why I say go with the state-audit -- and that takes the onus off of anybody here. Right now, you have people walking the Square and in Wal-Mart going, 'Well, there's something going on (with VCAD).'"
Dilly did not provide financials on a state-led audit. However, a $40,000 figure was mentioned later in the meeting.
"It's the best money you'll ever spend," Dilly said. "This auditor, the firm that you have, has been connected with the district for years, and nobody is going to believe it."
Dilly said that the board is showing a lack of accountability.
"When you put the same accountant in-charge of it," he said, "it's like giving the fox the key to the hen-house."
"What we ought to do is let (Wolfe) come up with a proposal of what he thinks is wrong -- because we don't know," Hillier said. You don't know and we don't know."
Mason said the board has to let the current process with DSWA play out.
"We don't know any of the audit findings yet, so we're going to let that whole process play out," he said. "Then, after that, it would probably be a good idea to bring up the discussion about the state audit."
Check a future edition of the Daily Mail for more from the VCAD January board meeting