County Leaders Debate Audit Practices

Fayette County Commissioners hired local CPA Greg Trlicek to perform audits of each County department that handles money.

Every year, the County hires an outside accountant to conduct an overall audit of the County’s finances, which is required by state law. This year, that job will go to Stephenson, LeGrand and Pfeil PLLC. Trlicek & Co. has performed the annual financial audit for the past several years. At last Thursday’s Commissioners Court meeting, County Auditor Cindy Havelka said Trlicek is in the process of selling the government auditing portion of his accounting business to Stephenson, LeGrand and Pfeil.

However, Havelka said the County has not conducted audits of the individual departments in many years and not once since she was appointed in 2019.

Both Stephenson and Trlicek submitted bids for conducting the department audits. Stephenson bid $1,500 per department and Trlicek submitted a bid of $1,000 to $1,200 per department.

County Clerk Branda Fietsam raised concerns about recent cases of questionable financial practices in other counties. For example, the Goliad County Clerk and District Clerk’s Office came under fire last year after the County Treasurer found bank accounts that the Clerk opened without the knowledge of the Commissioners Court or the Treasurer’s Office. Fietsam said she knew of another County Clerk’s office that had two workers arrested for embezzling $20,000 each.

“You need to find someone who does audits for County offices,” Fietsam said. “I wish I could have someone come in who actually knew the County Clerk’s business. I just want to show everybody that we’re on the up-and-up.”

“Are you saying you wouldn’t know if someone was embezzling funds in your office?” asked Pct. 4 Commissioner Drew Brossmann.

“No, it’s just that it happens,” Fietsam said, referring to the cases in other counties that she mentioned. “I want to know how that happens. And it’s not just that. It’s statutes are we reporting it to the right place?”

Havelka said at the meeting that she did not know whether the services from Trlicek or Stephenson would include a check into statutory compliance.

“I trust the ladies in my office,” Fietsam told the Record after the meeting. “I just think we need an outside set of eyes to check and make sure we’re doing everything right.”

Fietsam said she reached out to the Texas Association of Counties for recommendations of firms that can conduct department audits. Fietsam gave those recommendations to Havelka. Havelka said the some of the companies Fietsam submitted were based in El Paso and Brownsville. She said the County would have to pay for housing the auditors while they conducted the audits.

Havelka said the cost would be much higher than the bids submitted by Stephenson and Trlicek.

“Trying to get someone from El Paso or Brownsville here would be very expensive,” Havelka said.

“Trlicek has been doing our audits for years,” Havelka said. “They know what the County government is supposed to be doing. They are aware of what to look for.

“They will come in and audit your reporting, your cash flow, how you handle everything,” Havelka said.

Pct. 1 Jason McBroom said Fietsam could make a budget request for an audit specifically for her office in next year’s budget.

“If you’re concerned about the statutes and everything, why don’t in next year’s budget you go find somebody to audit your office,” McBroom said. “Put it in the budget and see if we approve it, and you’ll have all your questions answered.”

Fietsam said she was not only concerned about her office, but all County offices.

“You’re not going to find anyone to do what you want anywhere near this price,” McBroom said. “It’s going to cost a whole lot more. You’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably. Is it worth spending that amount of money to audit some departments who may not take in that much money?”

“Other counties have gone through this and we haven’t,” Fietsam said. “I just want to make sure we’re on the right page.”

“Point taken, Mrs. Fietsam,” said County Judge Dan Mueller. “I would say that I appreciate your concerns. But I would also say that in all likelihood, these other county clerks were probably not taking care of business. It’s hard to believe that these other county clerks were taking care of business if it took an auditor to catch it.”

Commissioners voted unanimously to hire Trlicek and Co. to conduct the departmental audits.