Sanborn, Iowa — The City of Sanborn has come up over $11,000 short. So says a special audit report prepared for the city.
A special audit report presented by T.P. Anderson & Company, P.C. of Humboldt, Iowa says that the apparent missing funds should have come from campground receipts for campers staying at Miller Park Campground.
The audit focused on calendar years 2017 and 2018. For 2017, the audit estimated that based on the nights each campsite was occupied, the city should have taken in $43,376. What was actually deposited was $34,447 — a difference of $8929. Based on the same information for 2018, the city should have taken in $24,360. What was actually deposited was $21,852 — a difference of $2508, for a total of $11,437 in unexplained shortfall.
The audit says that an effective system of internal controls would reconcile income to all supporting documentation. Plus it says city staff should retain that paperwork in accordance with an established record retention policy.
The report also says that the city clerk at the time did not maintain the records and did not cause a reconciliation to be prepared to allow for an investigation of any variance.
Auditors tell us that law enforcement is conducting a further investigation into the matter.
They say there were similar issues with the way that the records from Miller Park Cabin, the swimming pool, and the Sanborn Golf and Country Club were handled.
Sanborn’s former City Clerk, Peggy Japenga, and her father, former Mayor Duane Van Veldhuizen resigned their posts in January.
