City ready to hire new auditing firm

Annual report will be late; previous company terminated relationship

WEST HAVEN — After being dropped by its original auditing firm, the city city has identified a new firm to complete West Haven's annual audit for fiscal year 2021.

City officials decided to engage auditing firm PKF O'Connor Davies at the conclusion of a bidding process, according to information submitted to the state Municipal Accountability Review Board for review.

Mayor Nancy Rossi said the city still is drafting the letter but intends to move forward. She said that, although the audit will be late, it is mostly because the city's original auditing firm CliftonLarsonAllen terminated its relationship with the city so late in the season. She said she believes that once a new auditing firm is engaged it will move more quickly than usual, however, because auditing firms will have less work to do after other municipalities' audits are completed on time.

According to the information provided to the MARB at its meeting Tuesday, the contract is for $163,400 and could be renewed for the next four fiscal years. Rossi said she expects subsequent audits will be on time once a new firm is in place.

The state Municipal Auditing Act requires that all municipalities have their financial statements audited at least once annually. Rossi told the MARB last month that Clifton Larsen Allen officials called a meeting with the city at which they read a brief statement announcing the end of the firm's relationship with the city.

“I was surprised,” she said. A representative of the state Office of Policy and Management had reported that a stateordered audit by CohnReznick of a federal pandemic grant account was running behind schedule, and auditors from CohnReznick did not complete their field work before auditors from CliftonLarsonAllen arrived in City Hall.

The CohnReznick report claimed that $900,000 of a $1.15 million grant had either been misappropriated or had improperly documented expenses.