Fiscal Irresponsibility

Since the transfer of funds in mid 2016, the following practices exist or have taken place:

• No journals/ledgers/financial books have been established for the new "combined" account, which holds in excess of two million dollars in cash and securities.
• Monthly statements from the new "combined" account have gone unreconciled.
• Monthly statements from Father Jim's Fund (the only restricted account left with monies or securities) have also gone unreconciled. Donations to Fr. Jim's Funds are being deposited to the Operating Fund, with only one transfer of the monies due to Fr. Jim's Fund made during this three year period.
• The Special Fund Raising Account, which contains proceeds from the sale of King Kullen and Stop & Shop gift cards, is showing a negative $57,000 in liabilities in the form of "gift cards," and at the same time (4/2/19) assets of only $1,000 in the form of gift cards. How can that be?
• In July of 2017 the Vestry sent out a solicitation for donations to fund the new roof for the Marco C. Smith Building, promising that contributions would be used only for that purpose. In fact, the exact cost of the project had been withdrawn from the new "combined" account the prior month and placed in the operating account under the line "MCS roof project." Funds from that line were used to pay for the project. Donations (approximately $15,000) made by parishioners were simply deposited to the operating account, credited to income and not used to pay back the cost to the combined account. Apparently another $15,000 single donation may have been put into the combined account, but there is no formal record of this, since no set of books exists for that account (see first bullet above).
• Annual audits have for decades been done using an independent Certified Public Accountant--until the audit for 2016. In house audits were conducted for 2016 and 2017, consisting of only two and one page reports, respectively. Woefully inadequate. An audit by a CPA would have undoubtedly found many of the inadequacies listed above.
• None of the above inadequacies reflect on our office manager or bookkeeping staff. They are dedicated and hard working individuals, who simply have not been properly trained. They do not have an accounting professional to turn to when a question arises. The responsibility for keeping adequate and accurate records rests on the Rector and Vestry.