Marshall County has decided to implement a system of financial controls at the encouragement of state statute.
County Attorney Jim Clevenger says the Indiana General Assembly requested the State Board of Accounts to come up with the new standards. The policies – which are to be adopted at the local level – are designed to hopefully prevent mismanagement of government funds, even delving into the possibility of criminal actions.
Clevenger says the state had it reasons for the changes.
“It stems from other local governments where elected officials or others in county offices basically embezzled, stole money, whatever the case might be,” Clevenger.
A process is now in place that requires county governments to adopt an ordinance recognizing the financial controls. Following that, a training process and implementation of those controls must be certified with the state. Certification of the process is expected to be completed by June 1st of this year.
Internal control standards were supplied as part of the paperwork during Monday’s County Commissioners meeting by the county’s HR firm. Failing to conduct the training properly could result in write-ups during annual auditing.
Clevenger says there’s more to it than adopting the required policy.
“It’s not just that you adopt the policy, it: we adopt the policy and then we adopt a system by which the employees, people that are handling funds, get the proper training,” says Clevenger.
There’s still time to implement the plan and provide training.
The Marshall County Commissioners adopted the ordinance on first reading, ultimately suspending the rules to finalize the process.
