Louisiana Legislative Auditor
Daryl G. Purpera, CPA, CFE

May 22, 2017

Jeanerette's Improper Utility System Management Contributed to Unreliable Financial Information

Jeanerette officials have not managed the City’s water utility system properly, which has helped contribute to the incompleteness, inaccuracy, and unreliability of the City’s financial information, the Legislative Auditor said in a report released today.

In reviewing the City’s audited financial statements from fiscal years 2012, 2013, and 2014, auditors found that the utility system suffered substantial losses. However, no audited financial statements were available for fiscal years 2015 and 2016, nor was the utility fund bank account reconciled properly. As a result, auditors could not determine the utility system’s current financial status.

Investigative auditors found several weaknesses in the City’s utility system, including inadequate oversight over water meter readings, improper management of customer accounts, a failure to reconcile customer meter deposits, and a failure to monitor the utility system’s financial stability.

In addition to the City’s lack of attention to meter readings, auditors found that a former meter reader for Jeanerette intentionally underreported some customers’ water usage and that at least 63 customers had unreliable meters, which made it impossible to determine how much water was used.

The City also failed to manage customers’ utility accounts properly. Auditors noted that the problems included unapproved billing adjustments, conflicting records for customers with high bills, inconsistent treatment of customers who owed money on their accounts, and inadequate oversight of past due accounts.

Auditors found as well that officials could not provide documentation indicating which customer meter deposits the City actually had in its meter deposit bank account and that periodic reconciliations of the customer meter deposit bank account to the customer account records were not performed. In addition, the City failed to increase its garbage rates sufficiently to generate enough money to pay its solid waste contractor.

For more information contact:

Legislative Auditor
225.339.3800



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Office of the Louisiana Legislative Auditor | www.LLA.La.gov