State audit gives good grades to sheriff's office

The St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office received good marks on its annual audit, and Sheriff Mark Hebert says officials have been working diligently to cut expenses where possible during tough economic times.

Accounting firm Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick performed the sheriff’s office audit for the fiscal year ended June 30. The report was recently released on the state Legislative Auditor’s website.

Auditors issued an unmodified opinion, the most favorable possible, on the sheriff’s financial statements.

Expenditures in the sheriff’s budget totaled $12.7 million compared to total revenues of $13.44 million. The total ending fund balance was $3.76 million, increasing from the beginning fund balance of $3.02 million. The 2014-15 budget was $13 million compared to the 2013-14 budget of $14.22 million. Revenues totaled $13.67 million in 2013-14 and $14.26 million in 2014-15.

“We’re fighting the financial trend like everyone else,” Hebert said.

Sheriff’s office administrators have been lowering the office’s operating expenses during the past three years due to fewer revenues, Hebert said.

The sheriff’s office used to have almost 200 employees and is now down to 161 employees. Administrative staff also made the decision to close the seventh floor jail at the parish courthouse. Additionally, officials have saved money by the Morgan City Police Department housing female inmates, Hebert said.

“We’ve done a lot of things to try to cut expenses,” Hebert said.

Hebert expects to have to decrease his budget by another $1 million during the next year due to declining sales tax collections.

Government officials have to start looking for how they’re going to pay for necessary services, Hebert said.

Deputies are having to multi-task because of fewer resources, but the sheriff’s office has yet to drop a program or service.

Paying salaries and operating the jail are among the biggest expenses for the sheriff’s office, Hebert said. The jail can house 320 inmates but typically has from 20 to 60 open beds at a time. The trend on the federal, state and local levels is not to incarcerate as many inmates in order to save money, and, instead, put many defendants on probation, he said.

Making sure the parish jail is able to stay open in the midst of declining revenues is “our biggest dilemma right now,” he said.

Hebert has eliminated positions through attrition but hasn’t had to lay off or cut employees’ salaries.

The sheriff is doing everything possible not to have to cut salaries, but “sometimes hard decisions have to be made,” he said.

Auditors only issued one minor finding in the report in accordance with government auditing standards. Due to the small number of accounting personnel, the sheriff did not have adequate segregation of accounting functions within the accounting system.

Based on the size of the operation and the cost-benefit consideration of additional personnel, it may not be feasible to achieve complete segregation of duties, the report said.