April 13, 2005 (FY2004-05)

[Guest sullinss]

Proceedings of the Audit Committee

District No. 2, Yellowstone County and

High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

 

April 13, 2005

 

Call to Order

 

Chair Jane McCracken and Dick Fellows were the only members of the committee in attendance; therefore, there was no quorum. Thomas Harper and Mike Dilley were present as guests.

 

Thomas and Mike handed out the RFP document and the four responses to the RFP which were from Eide Bailly, Galusha, Higgins & Galusha, Joseph Eve, and Ernie Olness and Associates. Mike explained that the bidders were asked to bid two ways, the audit and combined with the preparing the financial statements. Eide Bailly is in their third year of their contract. The question was raised if it would be a conflict of interest for Ernie Olness to do the audit since he prepared the opening balances. This creates an independence issue for the first year of the contract. In essence, it would be auditing his own work. The district has purchased a financial roll-up process but it requires a lot of time, and Thomas has not had time to work on it. Dick Fellows mentioned that three years ago Ernie Olness was doing closing work not just financial preparation. We need to look at the minutes to be clear on these details. The closing date for the RFP is 45 days from April 7th.

 

The absent committee members will be given the materials, and we will review the proposals and meet here next Wednesday, April 20th at noon.

 

Thomas Harper will try to get some clarification on some of the items in the proposals before the next meeting.

 

 

 

Jane McCracken, Chair

 

 

 

 

Nancy Coe, Recorder