With so many moving parts, it is not uncommon for a county government to have findings on an audit. Standard procedure is then that the findings are followed by recommendations to correct the findings. While the Uintah County Commission does provide responses to the 2020 financial audit from the Office of the State Auditor, they first clearly state their position that “Uintah County wholly disagrees with the lawfulness of the State Auditor’s actions” in performing the audit in the first place. Both the Uintah County Commission and the Clerk/Auditor dispute Finding #1 which states, “Uintah County struggles to establish and maintain internal control that would ensure accurate recording and reporting of financial activity and safeguarding of County assets.” The recommendation given by the state for Finding #1 is to “establish an effective financial control environment and improve its tone at the top by enforcing established policies, realigning operational structure to strengthen internal control and work to improve the financial skills, knowledge, and expertise of key personnel.” On Finding #1, Clerk Auditor Wilkins responded to specific wording in the finding that states that he lacks “skills, knowledge, and expertise.” Wilkins’ reply is that he “does not agree with this statement as [the auditors] do not know [his] skills, knowledge, and expertise in preparation of the County’s Financial reports.” The Uintah County Commission responds to Finding #1 that they do not dispute the overall notion that there has been an ineffective Financial Control Environment but that this environment has existed for a long time and they encounter resistance as they move to correct it. They then dispute each example given in Finding #1 before concluding that they will take no actions in response. Visit BasinNow.com to link to the full audit report and refer to page 111 and 115 to 119 for the detailed responses to audit Finding #1. Evans Family Media will share several more news stories next week on specific topics within the audit.
