Council expected to OK use of county auditors
City Council will likely support an interlocal agreement next week that would see at least two auditors from Lee County’s internal audit office provide contractual help to the city.
Interim City Auditor Margaret Krym said the auditors will provide “project by project” help, and are not being brought in specifically to audit the city’s fuel management, which has come under fire following a report filed by special consultant Bill Towler.
Krym said her office has “aggressive” audit plans, and the two contractual positions will help tremendously.
“They won’t be moving into our offices,” Krym said. “They won’t be working for us, in a sense, but we’ll invite them to do a particular audit … we have a pretty aggressive audit plan this year. We’re already behind, but this will give us some capacity that will help us to achieve that goal.”
Krym’s office is budgeted 4.75 auditors, although it is currently operating with only three full-time auditors, including Krym.
Auditors from the Lee County office will make $56 an hour, a figure that also includes benefits.
Councilmember Kevin McGrail said the addition of two auditors will allow the city to find out if there is issues with the fuel system.
“This will allow us to move forward with the fuel audit,” McGrail said.
Krym said her office has already begun to examine the city’s fuel operation, and that the county auditors are not being brought in for that specific purpose.
“We will invite the county auditors to assist us … but we’ve been involved with (fuel) auditing activities already,” she said.