FINANCIAL AUDIT ON THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS KLINA MUNICIPALITY FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007 _part2 doc

Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 11 period of time, for the sake of tendering the building which would be used, 24% of the building from top to bottom will pertain to the Municipality, while the rest 76% will pertain to the construction company. The uncertainty of giving the contract is that the building area and the part of the land that has been given for this building, has not been accurately determined with the contract. There is no approval of this tender from higher authorities, for issuing of leasing of the land. section 44.2 municipality and take corrective actions. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 12 IV. AUDIT SCOPE The OAG has conducted an audit of the financial statements of the Municipality of Klina as of and for the year ended 31 December 2007. The Municipality works under regulation of self government of Municipalities in Kosovo 2000/45 UNMIK Regulation no 2006/54, 2007/30 and the statute of Municipality. The primary audit objective was to enable the OAG to express an opinion on whether the Municipality’s financial statements, presented in Annex I, give a true and fair view of the revenues and expenses during the year ended 31 December 2007 in accordance with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) for “Financial Reporting under the Cash Basis of Accounting.” The International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) is responsible for issuing IPSAS. The accuracy and completeness of the financial statements and accompanying notes contained in Annex I are the responsibility of the Municipalities management. Our audit of the Municipality’s financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2007 was conducted in accordance with international standards on auditing (ISA) issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. The Board functions as an international standards setting body under the auspices of IFAC. The ISAs establish the international framework within which the OAG is to perform its work and covers matters such as general principles and responsibilities, risk assessments and responses to assessed risks, audit evidence, relying on the work of others, and audit conclusions and reporting. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 13 V. AUDIT OPINION Basis for Disclaimer of opinion The summary of the significant issues identified through our audit procedures that led us toward disclaiming of our audit opinion is provided further within this section. Our findings and recommendations are discussed in full details in the Section VII: Key audit findings and recommendations. A. Accounting and financial reporting process 1. The Municipality’s financial statements provided in the Annex to this report are incomplete and as such not in compliance with the applicable laws and regulations. Therefore we were not able to obtain reasonable assurance over the appropriateness of the financial information provided in the Municipality’s financial statements as of and for the year ended 31 December 2007. 2. The amounts of municipality’s expenses for the year ended 31 December 2007 as reported in the financial statements are not reconciled with the related data provided from the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Hence, we were not able to obtain reasonable assurance over the completeness and accuracy of the municipality’ expenses for the year ended 31 December 2007. 3. The municipality does not maintain separate register for its fixed assets in all departments. In addition no reconciliation of municipality’s books to physical count has been made. Therefore, we were not able to satisfy ourselves with the completeness and accuracy of the municipality’s financial records related to its fixed assets. B. Design and operating effectiveness of internal controls 4. Based on the results of our audit procedures we found material weaknesses in design and operating effectiveness of the municipality’s internal controls particularly in respect of procedures implemented in recording of expenditures per category and economic code. Therefore we were not able to obtain reasonable assurance for the validity of the expenses recognized in the municipality’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2007. 5. Based on the results of our audit procedures we found material weaknesses in design and operating effectiveness of the municipality’s internal controls particularly in respect to lack of procedures for reconciliation of revenues recorded in accounting department and other departments. Therefore we were not able to obtain reasonable assurance for the completeness and accuracy of the municipality’ revenues recognized in the municipality’s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2007. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 14 6. In addition and related to controls established over monitoring of the collection of revenues from property tax we found that such controls do not provide for efficient and timely collection of property tax. 7. Furthermore and based on our procedures we found that Municipality lacks significantly in implementation of adequate procedures to efficiently control its liabilities toward its suppliers. As disclosed in more details in section VII and due to the non-existence of such controls, there are cases of over double payments to suppliers. C. Compliance with laws and regulations 8. Based on our inspection of issuance of construction licenses in Urbanism Department we found certificates where fees where not changed according to the municipality’s regulation approved on date 28.07.2006 and 31.05.2007. Instead in those cases which are discussed in more details in Section VII: Key audit findings and recommendations the municipality used fees determined in the previous internal Municipality regulation dated 03.05.2002. Disclaimer of opinion Due to the existence of multiple material uncertainties and significance of the matters discussed in the preceding paragraphs, we are not in the position to and we do not express an opinion on the Municipality’s financial statements in accordance with the IPSAS “Financial Reporting under the Cash Basis of Accounting as of and for the year 31 December 2007. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 15 VI. AUDIT APPROACH Our audit of the Municipality’s financial statements for the year ending 31 December 2007, was conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISA) issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. The Board functions as an international standards setting body under the auspices of IFAC. The ISAs establish the international framework within which the OAG is to perform its work and covers matters such as general principles and responsibilities, risk assessments and responses to assessed risks, audit evidence, relying on the work of others, and audit conclusions and reporting. In order to fulfill our responsibilities, we: • Reviewed the Municipality’s financial statements against the approved budget for 2007; • Determined whether the Municipality’s financial statements were prepared in accordance with IPSAS “Financial Reporting under the Cash Basis of Accounting”; • Compared the Municipality’s financial statement with Free Balance report issued by treasury department in Ministry of Finance for completeness. • Undertook extensive substantive testing of financial transactions; • Used a combination of judgment and random sampling to select transactions for testing; • Relied on a combination of interviews, analytical reviews, document reviews, and physical verification to assess the validity and propriety of financial transactions; Our findings and conclusions are based upon the documentation and other information and explanations provided to us during the course of our audit work. It is possible that additional information existed but was not provided to us and, if provided, might have altered our findings. With respect to the OAG’s audit opinion on the Municipality financial statement, the ISAs set out specific criteria that govern the type opinion that can be rendered. Audit opinions can be unqualified, qualified, adverse or a disclaimer of opinion. For example, the OAG may not be able to express an unqualified opinion when either of the following circumstances exist and, in the OAG’s judgment, the effect of the matter is or may be material to the financial statements: (a) There is a limitation on the scope of the auditor’s work; or (b) There is a disagreement with management regarding the acceptability of the accounting policies selected, the method of their application or the adequacy of financial statement disclosures. The circumstance described in (a) could lead to a qualified opinion or a disclaimer of opinion. The circumstances described in (b) could lead to a qualified opinion or an adverse opinion. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 16 A qualified opinion will generally be expressed when the OAG concludes that an unqualified opinion cannot be expressed but that the effect of any disagreement with management, or limitation on scope is not so material and pervasive as to require an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion. A disclaimer of opinion will be expressed when the possible effect of a limitation on scope is so material and pervasive that the OAG has not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence and accordingly is unable to express an opinion on the financial statements. An adverse opinion will be expressed when the effect of a disagreement is so material and pervasive to the financial statements that the OAG concludes that a qualification of the report is not adequate to disclose the misleading or incomplete nature of the financial statements. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 17 VII. KEY AUDIT FINDINGS AND RECOMMANDATIONS The following are the key audit findings and recommendations resulting from our audit of the Municipality financial statements. The Municipality comments if any are included in Annex 2. A. Accounting and financial reporting process Finding # 1 The Municipality’s financial statements provided in the Annex I to this report are incomplete in terms of their form and content as prescribed by the relevant provisions established by the authorities as such they are not in compliance with the requirements of Section 41: Final Report on the budget from the Law on Public financial management and accountability no. 2003/2, which prescribes the exact format and content of the Municipality’s financial statements. Recommendation We recommend to the Management of the municipality full implementation of the related provision in respect of the preparation of its annual financial statements. Finding # 2 Based on the audit procedures performed we identified differences between the amounts of expenditures reported in the notes of the municipality’s financial statements report and those acquired from the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Finding # 3 The municipality has reported grant revenue for the year ended 31 December 2007 in the amount of EUR 911,000, while according to data obtained from Treasury Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, grant revenue amounts EUR 792,000. As explained to us by the responsible person, the difference amounts EUR 119,000 is due to the revenues allocated from Grant which are not included in the data provided from the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Economy. Finding # 4 Furthermore with inspection of revenues related to operations of the municipality health department we noted that the donation from UNDP in the amount of EUR 24,000 is not included in municipality’ own financial data. Recommendation We recommend to the management frequent reconciliation of its financial data with those from the relevant institutions, such as Treasury Department in the Ministry of Economy and Finance. This will insure timely correction of possible mistakes in capturing and processing of the relevant financial transactions as well as valid and accurate financial information for the users of the municipality’s financial reports. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 18 Finding # 5 The municipality does not maintain separate register for its fixed assets in all departments. In addition no reconciliation of municipality’s books to physical count has been made. Recommendation We recommend management to design and implement adequate procedures that would require: - Detailed property record for each fixed asset - Property identification number to be assigned and affixed to each asset - Capitalization policy under which disbursements less than a specified Euro amount would be expensed. In addition and as a minimum, a property ledger should contain the following information for each fixed asset: - Acquisition date - Location - Number assigned by the municipality (tag number) - Serial number - Description and function - Cost basis - Details of depreciation, including methods of computation for both tax and financial reporting purposes - Anticipated useful life - Maintenance cost subsequent to the date of acquisition. - Date of disposal - Financing source - Expense voucher reference number (CPO #). Furthermore and in order to provide adequate safeguarding of its assets, the management of the municipality has to perform regular and at least on a annual basis, physical verification of all property items. Related accounting records have to be reconciled with the results of such physical counts. B. Design and operating effectiveness of internal controls Finding # 6 The municipality does not implement on a regular basis any procedures of recalculation of financial data from different sources, so that differences exist between the accounting department data and those registered within various other departments. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 19 Finding # 7 The municipality accounting department did not develop and implemented adequate procedures to efficiently control the collection status of its fees from issuance of business licenses as well as the collection status of property tax revenues. Based on our evaluation of the related internal control procedures we found that the accounting department does not maintain adequate, sufficiently, detailed, sub ledgers, registers of its tax payers. Recommendation We recommend that controls over the billing and collection function be reviewed and polices and procedures be introduced and documented to ensure all revenue is billed, collected and banked and that the independent checks are adequately documented. The departments of municipality should at least on monthly basis reconcile the revenues earned with accounting department. This will reduce the errors and differences for collections between department and accounting; it will also help in more accurate future budget projection. Finding # 8 Based on inspection of source document related to expenditures for sponsorship and we found several cases where payments are exercised without existence of related documents and there no information regarding of recipients of funds granted. Following payments were processed without sponsorship agreements and information regarding the recipients: 1. CPO #29070159 related to Public entity and culture – football club, in the amount of EUR 1,911 and date of payment 22.03.2007. 2. On CPO #29070259 related to sponsorship for organizing folklore festival, in the amount of EUR 2,000 and date of payment 18.05.2007. 3. CPO #29070526 Public entity and culture – football club, in the amount of EUR 1,000 and date of payment 07.09.2007. Recommendation We recommend to the management all sponsoring financial transactions to be exercised based on original source documentation such as request for sponsoring and contract and all transfers made based on the contract for activity, to be executed through bank accounts. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007 20 Finding # 9 Based on our inspection of certain expenditures related to vehicles fuel consumption, repairs and maintenance, we found that the municipality lacks significantly in implementation of sufficient appropriate authorization process. The related source documents subject to our inspection did not contain evidence of approval for their eligibility from assigned authorized person. Recommendation We recommend the management to strictly implement authorization of all source documents related to financial transactions by assigning of appropriate persons and complying with the requirement for proper segregation of duties. Furthermore, sufficient appropriate monitoring procedures have to be implemented which will assure adequate control over expenditures. Finding # 10 Based on our examination of source evidence related to expenditures and payments for electricity we found that owing to lack of adequate and frequent control certain electricity invoices originally amounting EUR 46,467, instead of amount of EUR 51,353. Moreover such error has been discovered after one year of the date of invoices, i.e. errors in December 2005 and January and February 2006 invoices were discovered during 2007. In general, the municipality does not implement any procedures of the quantities of electricity spent and stated into the invoices, nor matches its payments to related invoices. Recommendation The municipality should: -Review carefully all invoices received and especially for utilities to avoid any mistakes made from related companies, double payment or overpayment; -Expenditure records must be maintained in more detailed level, in order to enable each amount shown in the financial report to be traced to supporting documentation. Each transaction has to be recorded separately, showing transaction date, description, amount and respective expenditure code at minimum. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com . the municipality s financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2007. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Financial Audit Municipality of Klina for the year ended 31 December 2007. financial statements as of and for the year ended 31 December 2007. 2. The amounts of municipality s expenses for the year ended 31 December 2007 as reported in the financial statements. IV. AUDIT SCOPE The OAG has conducted an audit of the financial statements of the Municipality of Klina as of and for the year ended 31 December 2007. The Municipality works under regulation