Cedartown makes change, approves low bid from Mauldin and Jenkins for 2015 audit

The City of Cedartown will have a new group of auditors to look through the books for the 2015 budget and for the coming years.

City manager Bill Fann said that Mauldin and Jenkins, a firm with offices around Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, was the low bidder for this round of proposals from auditors for the 2015 budget and beyond at $21,000 even.

The city’s previous firm – Rushton and Company – came in with an increase of $27,000 for auditing this year’s budget, a price too high for Fann and commissioners.

Commissioners went with the lower bid.

It might seem like a big bill to pay for an outside agency to go through the city’s budget numbers every year, but Fann explained that there’s more to it.

A list of procedures and tests has to be conducted on the budget annually, he explained. The results are compiled in an 80-plus page document that follows guidelines set forth by state and federal government accounting practices.

“New standards come out every year,” Fann said. “We have a new one coming this year that will require yet another test, and make the document even longer.”

Much of the testing on the budget ends up being repetitive, Fann said, but that because these practices are required by law, and the auditors and the city have to go along.

Audits are important for cities and counties since they show the state and federal governments giving money back to local municipalities that funds are being handled in the correct way, and that all documentation is being filed in the necessary timeframe.

Fann’s main complaint with Rushton and Company was that they have pushed the completion of the annual audit report – due to the state by June 30 every year – back each year since they took up the contract.

“I was not pleased with the effort or timeline in last year’s audit,” he said. “They did a good job on the audit and their report, but there’s really no excuse for it.”

Fann said that overall, his main reason for requesting bids and choosing a new firm is to ensure that the city’s financials continue to remain on the up-and-up, and sometimes that requires a fresh set of eyes to take their own look at the books.

“You always want to make sure that you’re staying competitive and ethical and ensure that you’re getting the most qualified folks to do the job correctly,” he said.

Commissioners unanimously approved the new low bid during their Nov. 2 work session.