For at least a third time, the IVGID Board has hired Moss Adams, a regional CPA and consulting firm. The Board wants to obtain advice regarding five areas.

Looking at the advisory services requested from Moss Adams [GRAPHIC 1 & 9 BELOW], what is really going on?

#4 –The Board demanded an organizational structure to be provided as part of the budget process.  In 2022, General Manager Indra Winquest, promoted three long-time employees to new Director-level positions that he created – without Board approval. The positions were not included in the fiscal 2022 budget. This leads to asking some questions.  Doesn’t the General Manager work under the Board’s direction? How does the budget, a control, contain enough funds to create a new Director position in the General Fund? Doesn’t this mean there is a lot of “fat” in the budget? And that the budget is not really acting as an internal control?

The Nevada Commission on Ethics stated in Opinion No.93-34, “The IVGID Board of Trustees, who approve the pay levels for management and employees as well as bonuses and perquisites for those employees, is the only authority that has jurisdiction to develop and follow criteria based upon merit and performance, for determining which employee should be awarded gifts or other special recognition for excellent employee performance.”

That would seem to say the General Manager, who does not have Board approval,  does not have the power to create promotion positions for long-time employees.

#3 – In October, 2020, the Board voted to implement Tyler Munis for Human Resources & Payroll (budget request $257,308), based on requests by the Directors of Human Resources, Information Technology and Finance.  These three Directors are the project sponsors. In November 2020, the Board was asked to provide supplemental funding to a five-year amount to $891,438 and amend Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan. The change was a concurrent implementation of new Finance and Accounting System.  

In January 2021, the Director of Human Resources, Dee Carey, resigned. Ms. Carey had taken a position with the Davidson Group. It is uncommon for the sponsor of a big software implementation to resign within 60 days of it being authorized. The Board should have immediately questioned the Tyler implementation. Instead, they are now asking Moss Adams to assess the implementation and recommend plans.

The Weekly Accounts Payable register hints at issues of the implementation [GRAPHICS 3,4,5].   It appears that payments are being posted with inaccurate account numbers. With incorrect account postings, the budgeted resources remaining is unknown. Do management and staff check the available budget before making expenditures?

But the General Manager’s status report gives no indication that there is anything amiss. [GRAPHIC 6] It stated  that “financial reports” have been posted through March, 2023.  This is untrue. The financial LINE ITEM DETAIL Report has not been posted since December 31, 2022. [GRAPHIC 7] And the  quarterly CIP report  has not been posted to the website  for the past three quarters.  This is likely because payments have not been posted with accurate account numbers since that date. So the reports that are on the web site are from excel – created by manual posting of transactions.

#5 Compliance with Board policies might be hard to document, because there appears to be non-compliance with several. To keep this article short, only four are included here.

       ·      Board policy on public records (January 11, 2023). In 2023, several residents have not received the public records requested, but the District has shown the request to be “complete” on the General Manager status report.

      ·      Capitalization of Fixed Assets
 Policy 8.1.0
 Restatement of prior year financials has not been done, even though Audit Committee member Cliff Dobler wrote multiple memos to the Audit Committee. This items will be addressed  this summer.   There are 27 items.  There are substantial restatements which must be made.

·      Procurement card: Policy 8.2 No personal use. Some questionable p-card transactions are shown [GRAPHIC 8].

·      Policy 6.2 states, “District Pricing Structure should ensure that revenues are sufficient to cover full cost of providing services to its residents, guests and visitors.”  (May 2022)      But pricing for the golf courses, recreation center, and recreation programs appear to not be following the policy.

Wouldn’t non-compliance with Board policies also indicate a lack of internal controls?

#2 – The Controller position has remain unfilled since Martin Williams left in 2022. Internal controls are the responsibility of District management, not one position. But the unfilled position has likely affected the Tyler implementation as well as financial operations.

#1 – Without strong internal controls, and with 1) an organization where questionable promotions occur, 2) key positions remain unfilled, and 3) the budget appears to be an exercise in bureaucracy, one has to ask the big question:

Does the Board lack confidence in the General Manager and the Director of Finance?

And what about the Director of Human Resources, who was promoted after Dee Carey left? And if so, what will they do about it, when Moss Adams gives them their written recommendations?

The authors, Cliff Dobler and J. Gumz, are long-time resident and property owners of Incline Village, and registered voters.

GRAPHIC 1

GRAPHIC 2  (above in article)

GRAPHICS 3,4,5

The Account format is supposed to be 999-999-99-99-9999.

 

GRAPHIC 6

GRAPHIC 7 (above in article)

GRAPHIC 8

GRAPHIC 9