Aside from a few work flow issues, the borough is in “very good financial shape,” according to Robert Swisher, who conducted Metuchen’s annual audit.
“Our audit is a financial and compliance audit, making sure financial statements are fairly stated and compliance wise, the state of New Jersey has a lot of compliance regulations you have to do and internal controls you have to maintain,” Swisher said before the Borough Council on Nov. 5. “In a couple of cases we found some areas where the controls were there, but weren’t necessarily working.”
The council voted on a resolution approving the 2017 annual audit with the auditor’s recommendations and corrective action plan.
“One of the problems we had the last couple of years and was finally corrected is with the [municipal] pool,” Swisher said, noting the finance and compliance issues have “really turned around and things are in good shape.”
Metuchen Borough Administrator Jay Muldoon said another issue in the audit dealt with the collection of outside overtime police duty funds.
“We implemented a contract with Extra Duty Solutions [based in Trumbull, Connecticut] that is already in place and working very well so that one is now resolved,” he said. “The other two [issues were] more timely reconciliations. We brought that up in a meeting so I have had some very direct conversations with Becky [Cuthbert, Metuchen’s chief financial officer] on steps to take to get those reconciliations done in a more timely manner.”
