By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Barton County Treasurer Jim Jordan and his staff recently received a score of 100 percent on a Kansas Department of Transportation audit. County Administrator Matt Patzner has some catching up to do. Tuesday morning, the board of commissioners heard from Jami Benyshek, senior audit manager at Adams Brown, regarding the county's 2023 financial audit. She joked about giving the county a score of 99.9.
"Overall, like I said, very clean audit," she said. "We always appreciate all of the time and hard work Matt and all the departments put into helping us get the audit done. I think, obviously, the courthouse project has delayed our audit delivery the last couple of years, but hopefully in the next year, we can move it up a little bit."
Barton County began 2023 with $25,159,000 and ended the year with $22,138,000. Adams Brown completed a financial statement audit covering revenues, expenditures, and unencumbered cash, and a single audit that covers federal expenditures.
"You did decrease about three million, but that was not unexpected," Benyshek said. "You spent all your ARPA money, you had a big courthouse project, so that was not surprising."
The board of commissioners passed Barton County's 2025 budget just before hearing Benyshek's report. She also complimented the board for their work on the budget.
"I wanted to take a minute to just applaud you on your budget hearing and the budget discussions you've had," she said. "I can really tell you guys take it really seriously and you have a great understanding of the budget. Like you said, it's very confusing. The way you were able to answer the questions, I think it goes a long way in proving how much you really care and understand the whole budget process."
Adams Brown did find two small issues in the audit. Two public works contracts were not properly bonded, and expenditures were not controlled so no indebtedness was created in the school district subdivision. The cash was negative because a reimbursement had not yet been received.