Act 774 Requirements Result in Additional Evaluations for 68 St. Tammany Parish Entities

Sixty-eight St. Tammany Parish governmental entities required additional audit procedures under the provisions of Act 774. The most common deficiencies identified in the additional audit procedures were a lack of written policies and control procedures, a lack of documentation for credit card purchases, and a lack of written supervisory review or approval of documents.

The Act, which was passed in 2014, provides for enhanced oversight by the state auditor and authorizes him to establish criteria for procedures to be performed in addition to the entities’ annual financial reporting requirements. The Act applies only to those St. Tammany Parish entities that have annual revenues of $75,000, or more. The report released today summarizes the results of the third year of implementation of the Act.

Overall, LLA auditors and independent CPAs issued 63 reports for these entities that examined such areas as payroll and personnel, board oversight, ethics, capital assets, travel and expense reimbursement, and several other aspects of their internal financial operations.

Among the 63 entities evaluated by auditors were 34 that had exceptions identified in their 2017 reports. For 2018, auditors found that 28 of the entities corrected prior year exceptions, made significant improvements, or had only limited repeat exceptions. However, six entities did not.

Those entities that continued to have significant repeat exceptions in 2018 were: the St. Tammany Parish Sewerage District No. 1, the St. Tammany Parish Sewerage District No. 4; the St. Tammany Parish Waterworks District No. 3; the St. Tammany Parish Mosquito Abatement District; the Town of Pearl River; and the Village of Folsom.