{"id":12376,"date":"2024-03-16T09:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T09:00:11","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Warner-audits-sunshine-week-54365794\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=12376","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine Week: Warner\u00a0financial audit attracts attention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A routine audit of the town of Warner\u2019s finances found officials were sometimes slow to deposit funds, late to pay credit card bills, and some account balances didn\u2019t add up, among other financial irregularities.<\/p>\n

While the accounting firm of Vachon Clukay and Company was quick to note that it was simply pointing out \u201copportunities for strengthening internal controls,\u201d these suggestions caught the attention of residents.<\/p>\n

Before voters approved the $4.56 million operating budget at Town Meeting on Wednesday, Bill Hanson called for the town to address these concerns before raising taxes again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are huge misses in our town finances that need to be corrected,\u201d said Hanson,\u00a0who will join the budget committee next year. \u201cInstead of raising the budget, how about we clean up a mess first, and then look at increasing the budget next year if we have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report, which was dated February 20, stated that a number of credit card purchases lacked paperwork justifying the expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cLack of supporting documentation can increase the risk for inappropriate purchases or personal purchases made on behalf of the Town,\u201d the letter stated. \u201cFinance charges on credit cards can be abusive of the Town\u2019s tax money if done on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter also noted that funds from the solar array revolving activity were excluded from estimated revenue figures given to the state before the town\u2019s tax rate was set.<\/p>\n

The solar array fund is intended to account for revenue the town receives from utility companies to pay off debt payments. In 2022, the estimated revenue was $23,502. The same was true for 2021 when $20,385 was not included from the solar array fund in the town\u2019s revenue report.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcluding the estimated revenues in the Town\u2019s budget causes an unnecessary increase in funds being raised from taxation,\u201d the letter stated.<\/p>\n

Despite the issues cited, the full audit, which was for 2022, noted that the town accounted for all of its largest transactions in statements and the firm encountered \u201cno significant difficulties\u201d when completing the audit.<\/p>\n

The Monitor filed a records request this week to obtain the last three years of town credit card statements.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year \u2013 after two select board members abruptly resigned and then attempted to rescind this resignation, leading to and a court case to appoint a new select board member \u2013 the Monitor filed a records request for all email and text messages between the former town administrator and select board members.<\/p>\n

Those records showed mostly business-like communication between the parties before the abrupt resignations.<\/p>\n

The town also instituted a policy<\/a> that required members of the public to file records requests at the end of each select board meeting to receive a Zoom recording of meetings. Due to an influx of requests, the town then hired a new position to help with its meeting recordings.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, residents voted to change this precedent, passing a citizen\u2019s petition to require the select board, planning board, zoning board and budget committee to post video and audio recordings within two weeks of the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe events of the summer of 2023 can certainly be retold from varying points of view,\u201d read the select board\u2019s letter in the annual town report. \u201cThey have been the subject of numerous 91-A requests, and differing accounts have run in social media and print media. Warner has paid a high price for this.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A routine audit of the town of Warner\u2019s finances found officials were sometimes slow to deposit funds, late to pay credit card bills, and some account balances didn\u2019t add up, among other financial irregularities.While the accounting firm of Vachon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":12377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=427]Michaela Towfighi[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[508,12],"tags":[24,505,318,338],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[509],"class_list":["post-12376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-headlines-cm","category-town-city-government","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","tag-sunshine-week","tag-warner-nh","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/33921271-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12378,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12376\/revisions\/12378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12376"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=12376"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}