By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com
ROANN – The Town of Roann has been selected to participate in a pilot program being overseen by the State Board of Accounts (SBOA).
Clerk-Treasurer Robert Ferguson told Town Council members on Tuesday, April 10, that he received a call from SBOA representatives earlier in the day asking him to participate in the program.
The new program is designed to allow SBOA staff members to conduct audits remotely, rather than onsite.
The town recently had a six-year audit completed, which, Ferguson noted, it passed with few problems.
However, auditors were on site 12 hours a day, four days per week for three months.
“So they’re starting a new program where towns will be submitting everything through Gateway,” Ferguson said. “The whole idea is to make it so they don’t have to be in the office so much.
“They’re trying to cutback on time, so it will be cheaper for the communities.”
Under the pilot program, he said, auditors may be on site “maybe a half dozen times. Everything else can be done from their homes, or maybe from Indianapolis.”
Council member Richard Morris noted that neither the town nor Ferguson did anything wrong.
“The last audit was a six-year audit and it was highly recommended,” he reiterated. “It passed with flying colors.
“Because of that, the Town of Roann, and Robert Ferguson, in particular, have been selected to be on the pilot program that all the towns and cities in the state will be going to in the near future.”
Ferguson will have the “honor of helping develop that program and putting his input in the questions that are going to be asked,” Morris continued. “I think that speaks highly of Bob. It’s always good having input into what questions the other towns are going to answer, also.”
Ferguson later told The Paper of Wabash County that he was surprised and honored to have been asked to participate in the program.
“It shows they have confidence in me and my office,” he said.
Ferguson said work on the program has already started. He has had to input a variety of background information into the Gateway computer system.