Carr, Riggs & Ingram recently completed the 2023 Audit of the City of Shreveport and its departments. As with every city audit there are findings of non-compliance with various accounting protocols and standards.

Here is a summary of the material weaknesses, non-compliance, and  significant deficiency listed in the audit:

1. Transfers were made in and out of general ledgers when money had not actually moved between funds. Journal entries were made based on budget ordinances that were adopted during the year instead of actual cash transfers.

2. The City does not have adequate procedures to support and track in the financial records the receivable amounts for the various property standards categories. The City does not have a way to track and determine whether amounts are collectable or not.

3. The City did not have adequate controls and procedures in place to ensure all significant account balances were properly analyzed and accurately reported. This includes cash, investments, capital assets, revenue, receivables, interfund receivables and payables, liabilities and expenses.

4. Compensated absence reports prepared by the City's IT department, Fire and Police personnel contained material error and did not roll property roll forward from the prior year. This finding was also made in the 2022 Audit.

5. The fire department and community development did not provide timely and accurate documentation for the City to provide an accurate Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards (SEFA). This report tracks amounts of federal dollars expended, not the amount received, during the fiscal year.

6. The City was late in submitting its audited financial statements to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor due to documentation not being timely provided for compensated absences, grants from community development and fire department, actuarial documentation and transfers.

7. An employee with the police department was paid full salary in the approximate amount of $58,000 after going on with disability status due to the lack of communication by the police department head to the city payroll department.

8. The fire department failed to establish and maintain effective controls over reporting and failed to properly submit quarterly and semi-annual reports in accordance with the grant agreement or failed to respond to inquiries from the grantor agency for processing.

The Audit as listed 2022 material weaknesses that had not be resolved in 2023:

a. Property standards records as set forth in paragraph 2 above.
b. Material adjustments as set forth in paragraph 3 above.
c. Compensated absences reports as set forth in paragraph 4 above.
d. SEFA reports as set forth in paragraph 5 above.
e. No  coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds was reported in 2022 as required by federal regulations, with the exception of # 4 above. The compensated absence reports of the IT, fire and police would be completed by Dec. 31, 2024.

In the Corrective Action Plan, the City advised that immediate steps should be taken to immediately resolve all of the noted problems listed above