Haywood County Audit Highlights New and Familiar Problems
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HAYWOOD COUNTY, Tenn. — Parts of the latest audit of Haywood County read very much like the county’s previous audit because many of the problems identified last year were not corrected. The new audit, released Wednesday by the Comptroller’s office, identifies 16 significant issues – nine of which were also highlighted in the previous audit. Nine of the 16 findings deal with the operations of the county mayor’s office. They include issues like failing to get competitive bids on some purchases, operating the solid waste disposal fund at a deficit and entering into a lease-purchase agreement without prior approval of the Haywood County Commission. Failure to seek competitive bids was also an issue in the director of schools’ office, where some tire purchases were made without going through that process. The register of deeds allowed unauthorized people to have unsupervised access to the office after hours. The audit also identified unsound operating practices in several different departments, including allowing multiple employees to use the same cash drawers and share the same computer usernames and passwords. Haywood County doesn’t have an audit committee or a centralized system of accounting, budgeting and purchasing – both of which are best practices recommended by the Comptroller’s office. The West Tennessee county is home to one of the state’s “megasites” targeted for major business development. “This latest audit of Haywood County is of great concern to me,” Comptroller Justin P. Wilson said. “Last year, our auditors highlighted 12 issues with the county government’s operations. Nine of those issues were still present when our auditors made their most recent visit to Haywood County. I want county officials to know that we expect them to take our findings seriously and correct them.” To view the audit online, go to: http://www.comptroller.tn.gov/la/.
