At last Thursday’s East Ridge City Council meeting, independent auditors from HHM CPAs presented a summary of the City’s annual financial audit document.  According to a press release, as part of their audit process, they did not propose significant adjustments to the city’s financial records.  There were no uncorrected misstatements.  Further, they did not become aware of any fraudulent or illegal acts. 

The auditors did report one finding, though.  The city’s fire department was not properly recording payroll and the City did not have proper controls in place to ensure both the employees and management were verifying and approving the time that was being recorded.

The errors were identified by current personnel and appropriate measures were immediately put in place to remedy the errors and to prevent any further occurrences in the future. 

The press release states that city officials are evaluating the potential impact to the employees and the next steps will be determined once the evaluation is complete.

East Ridge News Online has learned that there is a potential for the City of East Ridge to require some firefighters to reimburse the city any overpayment in compensation they may have received.