Dover reviews its Fiscal Year 2023 financial report after delays.
The city has been working on the comprehensive financial reports and audits for Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024. Maryland-based SB & Company handled the audits for FYs 2022 and 2023.
Dover’s controller-treasurer Patricia Marney presented the information on the 2023 audit at last week’s Council of the Whole Meeting.
Despite delays in the process, Marney said city employees and contracted workers found no material fraud or misrepresentations.
“Comparing ‘23 to ‘22, our net position was higher year over year despite some of the financial challenges that we experienced with some economic challenges with the increase in total costs that the city received,” Marney said.
Marney said Dover’s finance department experienced a year of transition in FY 2024, with the department being at less than half staffed when she volunteered to help.
The city’s reporting manager retired in March 2023 and the controller-treasurer at the time resigned in November 2023, Marney said. The city was also still seeking accountants and a payroll clerk in the same year.
Marney said the team had to prioritize day-to-day operations with such a small group working to keep Dover afloat.
“That was actually part of the findings for our audit and the delay in presenting, because that compounded some of our issues,” Marney explained. “So because the finance department was short-staffed, there were reconciliations that were unable to be completed. Those things have been completed and brought up to date as of February.”
Council President David Anderson said there was an error that had to be corrected in the reports.
“I also want to say that I actually appreciate one of the reasons why the report was late,” Andersons said. “And that is discovery of an important error that needed to be corrected, which could have had a very negative impact on our outlook… But if in spite of everything being busy, if you and your staff didn't go through the reports and find that something had been miscarried, [miscategorized], it could have been a problem.”
Marney said she planned on closing out financial recordings for March by the end of the week. Dover’s Finance Department now only has one vacancy.
Marney expects the audit for fiscal year 2024 to be completed in the next few weeks.
