Dist. 158 slams auditor for delay
Huntley District 158 will finally get its hands on its 2006 audit next week -- more than a year after the 2006 fiscal year ended.
Board members criticized the district's longtime auditor, Virchow Krause & Co., for the delay.
"It's a joke," board Vice President Tony Quagliano said. "We've just had tremendous issues trying to get these folks to finish this up."
Citing the board's dissatisfaction with the long delay, Quagliano said District 158 is ending its longtime relationship with Virchow Krause.
"They won't be picked up again next year," Quagliano said.
Virchow Krause declined to comment on the matter.
Although officials said the delay did not cause any problems for the district, the audit is a state requirement and affects the district's ability to borrow money and plan its budget.
Virchow Krause, formerly William F. Gurrie & Co., has taken so long because of a host of issues board members had with previous drafts of the audit, district officials said.
Among those, the auditing firm reported millions of dollars in ongoing construction for administration buildings that were already completed, officials said.
Virchow Krause didn't start work on the 2006 audit until October 2006, three months after the fiscal year ended, because of a dispute with District 158 over the bill for the 2005 audit.
Despite the delay, the 2006 audit did not end up costing the district more. It cost about $30,000 -- or what the district expected to pay for the 2005 audit until it got a bill for $90,000.
The 2005 audit was delayed and cost more because of irregularities Virchow Krause found in District 158's books.
Virchow Krause also would not complete the 2006 audit until Jefferson Wells' forensic audit of the district's payroll department and construction fund were finished, district officials said.
But board members said these reasons aren't enough to explain the auditor's lengthy delay in completing the audit.
"To me, there is no good explanation for why it's so delayed," board member Larry Snow said.