Wilson County committee approves four historical journal corrections after audit review

Millie Sloan, clerk and master, told the committee that an exit review by Furman Bridal identified four journal discrepancies and that two of the items had already been corrected in‑house while two remain to be fixed. "We've got 2 of out of the 4, we've got 2 corrected. The other 2 are at the bottom here for 57.75, and then the other charge would be $34," Sloan said.

Sloan said one item was "an overpayment of a check" and another appeared to stem from a software conversion when the office moved records into TENSUS, with affected entries dating back to 1973, 2006 and 2011. Committee members asked why the errors were not discovered earlier; one member noted that audit sampling can miss particular cases in prior years.

Speaker 6 moved to approve the four journal entry corrections and Speaker 1 seconded the motion. After brief discussion about audit sampling and recordkeeping, the committee voted in favor. The committee's approval directs staff to correct the journal entries locally; Sloan said the corrections will then be taken to budget and "read into the commission" for the commission's final action.

The committee did not record a detailed roll-call vote in the record provided; members verbally indicated assent at the meeting. The corrections listed by Sloan include two items already fixed and two outstanding entries for $57.75 and $34 that the committee approved correcting tonight. The committee also noted the need to ensure the county's process for error detection and audit follow-up is functioning so comparable cases are found earlier.

The committee flagged the corrections for final county commission review; a staff member or designee will read the committee's action into the commission when the budget committee has processed the item.