St. Landry Parish’s latest audit shows a mistake that puts the parish in violation of state law.
"Occasionally mistakes are made and of course this one is going to be corrected," Parish President Bill Fontenot said.
The mistake stems for a $259,000 computer server parish government bought in 2015.
The problem is, the parish didn’t get bids or permission from the state, which is required by law.
"My staff pointed out that In 2015 where I signed a rental-purchase contract there was a line missing in the contract," Fontenot said. " A non-appropriation clause, which needed to be there. Otherwise if not in there you have to go to bond commission."
Fontenot says his auditing staff found the error and reported it to the state. He says the three-year lapse between when they bought the server and this year when they reported it is because, in 2015, there was no auditing staff in place.
"With the public accounting staff that I have employed and put in place in the last year and half we have improved government public accounting a thousand percent," Fontenot said. " I’m confident it won’t happen again. We’re protected."
