LORIS, SC (WMBF) – The mayor of Loris says the findings of a city financial audit could be released within the next few months, and that city finances are trending upward for the first time in a while.
The audit was first requested in September 2023 after a city councilman claimed nearly $1.5 million in hospitality tax funds were misused and not directed toward tourism-related products and programs as required under South Carolina guidelines.
Last August, auditors presented a preliminary report to the Loris City Council and were given additional time to complete their work.
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Mayor Mike Suggs said the auditor decided to review every transaction in the hospitality tax fund rather than a sample.
“The auditor started quite a while ago working on it, instead of doing a sample of a few transactions once he got into it he decided it was prudent to audit every transaction in that fund, which he has been working on for quite some time,” Suggs said.
Suggs said the auditor is categorizing each transaction as proper, not proper, or questionable.
“It does take some time, you’ve got to pull checks, you’ve got to pull supporting documentation, you’ve got to look at the city council meeting minutes to determine if the expenditures were approved by council, and then he’s got to put all of that together,” Suggs said.
Suggs said the issues stem from poor bookkeeping in the past.
City Treasurer and Interim City Administrator Angel Neighbors said changes are already in place.
“We have the invoice, I sign off on it, I have the mayor sign off on it, and then the third party, third person writes the checks, so we have multiple people looking at one invoice instead of it just going straight to the person writing it, and no one ever knew that check was being written,” Neighbors said.
Neighbors added that with the new bookkeeping procedures in place, city leaders expect to be eligible for state and federal grants again in the near future.
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