The independent audit report found that the Redmond, Ore., golf course began facing budgeting dysfunction after the former General Manager resigned in early 2015, noting the management has not shown proper control over deposits, collections, and billing, has increased food-and-beverage costs, and overstates revenues and payroll costs.
An independent audit completed this month took issue with CourseCo’s financial management of Juniper Golf Course in Redmond, Ore., which began to face budgeting dysfunction after a former General Manager resigned in early 2015, the Bend, Ore., Bulletin reported.
The state-required audit, which took a look at the city of Redmond’s financial activity last fiscal year, deemed the golf course management company’s handling of the golf course budgeting a significant deficiency—the only such designation in the report, the Bulletin reported.
Among the criticisms was the reduction of controls over deposits, collections and billings and monitoring of past-due accounts; an increase in food and beverage costs; the consistent overstating of revenues and payroll costs in the budgeting process; as well as issues in the monitoring and proper recording of accounts payable and accounts receivable, the Bulletin reported.
“We could tell there were some things that looked a little strange out there, so we took a closer look,” said Rob Tremper, who presented the audit report to the Redmond City Council on behalf of Dickey and Tremper LLP, which conducted the audit. “A change of managers saw duties delegated to senior staff, and we saw a dropping back on the monitoring of the billing and collections because they had been shifted around.”
The problems, which the audit stated were due to a change in CourseCo’s sales software along with former General Manager Steve Bratcher’s resignation, didn’t involve unauthorized expenses, said Jodi Burch, one of the city’s deputy directors of central services, the Bulletin reported.
“It was the timing in which expenses posted,” Burch said. “The expenses were authorized—say an item was ordered in June but wasn’t paid for until July, and then it was inadvertently recorded in July. The costs were eligible and appropriate; it was a timing thing. Any time you go through a software conversion, that’s a very extensive process. Staff was going through a lot of cleanup.”
Still, the audit stated issues like these increase the risk of future errors or improper behavior, and it was recommended the city work with CourseCo to make sure these problems don’t keep occurring, the Bulletin reported.
The city, responding to the audit’s findings, stated in the report that it’s confident a new set of goals and performance metrics, along with monthly meetings between representatives of the city and CourseCo, will likely bring improvement. All of this is outlined in the city’s new four-year contract with CourseCo, which went into effect on January 1 and includes incentives and safeguards that the previous contract with the company lacked, Deputy Director of Central Services Jason Naff said.
“The (previous contract) was the first time the city had a contract with a professional management company,” Naff said. “We created it using other contracts, but now we have a better understanding. Now we were able to put some things in there we know that we want achieved.”
The hiring of new General Manager Tim Kane, who starts February 1, as well as the creation of a Contract Oversight Team featuring city staff, a golf committee member and the City Council golf liaison, will help to improve bookkeeping operations, Naff said.
Beyond the golf course, Tremper said the rest of the audit showed a healthy financial operation, the Bulletin reported.
“We’re happy to say we have a clean audit opinion this year,” he said, adding that the report was delayed due to some catchup the city had to do in regard to correctly reporting grant money from the previous fiscal year to the state.
“We did have some extra time needed because of last year’s audit,” he said. “To clear those findings it took (until) about mid-December of 2015 to get everything worked out with the state. The issues got cleared up.”
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