State treasurer’s office awaits audits from Pee Dee municipalities

OLANTA — The state treasurer’s office has announced it will withhold payments to nearly 20 municipalities — including Olanta, Quinby, Sellers, Andrews, Lynchburg and Atlantic Beach — until the towns and cities submit their annual audits.

“When they submit their audit, we’ll release that money,” treasurer’s spokesman Scott Malyerck said.

Olanta officials, who are working to catch up on their audits, said they understand that they can still receive the funding.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” Mayor Betty Sims said.

The treasurer’s office is awaiting the town’s fiscal year 2006-07 audit, Malyerck said. That fiscal year ended June 30, 2007.

Olanta Town Council has reviewed the draft of the town’s 2006-07 audit in its latest step toward catching up on the town’s financial evaluations. Council is waiting on a final version of the audit.

The first payment that could be withheld involves money collected from the county’s local option sales tax, Malyerck said. It will be distributed later this month to towns that have submitted their audits.

The other payment, which will go out April 23, is a quarterly payment from a local government fund, which would total about $4,700 for Olanta, Malyerck said.

Starting Feb. 1, Treasurer Converse Chellis has been able to withhold the quarterly payments through a measure approved by the Legislature last year.

State payments to cities range from $300 to $888,000 a quarter, while counties receive $153,000 to $4.2 million quarterly.

In Sellers’ case, the small town of 300 has had financial woes for years and in 2008 closed its offices and quit paying city employees.

Olanta is dealing with issues that arose after a 2006 switch in bookkeeping systems. The change also happened amid a great deal of turnover in the town clerk’s position, town officials said last month.

The town’s general ledger numbers were entered incorrectly into the new system, and Town Clerk Tara Basye, who began working for for Olanta in May 2008, has said she’s in the process of re-entering bookkeeping data up to February 2008.

In addition, law enforcement officers are investigating what happened to personnel files and audit books that were determined to be missing during the audit.

Once this audit is done, the town will be able to start on its 2007-08 audit.

The 2006-07 audit is being conducted by Karen A. Hursey of Phillips, Hursey and Farrell, CPAs, LLC in Hartsville.

Although the audit is still in its draft format and hasn’t been made public, council members said in a public workshop last month that it identifies five “significant deficiencies.” They said the town has corrected or is taking steps to fix those issues.

Council members have discussed ways to improve the town’s internal controls. Sims has contacted the Municipal Association of South Carolina, which will send someone to act as an assistant to Basye as she works to re-enter the town’s records.

Council members also discussed the town’s need for standard written policies and procedures for town employees to follow.

Other municipalities that had not submitted their audits by Wednesday afternoon were Bonneau, Cross Hill, Gaston, Fairfax, Iva, Lincolnville, Norway, Olar, St. Stephens, Ulmer and Vance.

To check their status, visit http://www.treasurer.sc.gov on the Internet.

— Dianne Owens of the Marion Star & Mullins Enterprise and The Associated Press contributed to this report.