Franklin BOC Contracts With New CPA Firm – Ousts Rushton & Co.

After more than 10 years with one CPA firm,  Franklin County will have a new CPA firm conducting their annual audit.

At their regular meeting Monday, the board voted  to hire the firm of Dunkin & Kitchens of Clarkesville.  Franklin County has used the firm of Rushton & Company in Gainesville for its annual audits since the late 1990’s.

But last year, commissioner Clint Harper suggested political favoritism might be getting in the way of financial savings to the county.

“I believe we need to find some new auditors,” Harper said last year. “I think it’s time we change because a lot of times politics gets involved. I’m not saying Rushton & Company has not done a good job for us, they have. That’s not what I’m implying at all. I just think you may get a little better service if you change periodically.”

This year, a Financial Audit Committee was formed, made up of county manager Billy Morse and several commissioners to solicit requests for proposals.   At their work session last week, Morse went over the final selection process.

“Once we settled on pricing, the committee settled on the top three that we wanted to interview,” Morse said. “They were Mauldin & Jenkins of Macon, Rushton & Company of Gainesville, and Duncan & Kitchens of Clarkesville. We did a follow up with Dunkin & Kitchens and the committee recommendation is to hire the services of Duncan & Kitchens for audit services for 2013.”

Commission chair Tom Bridges noted that a three-year contract with Duncan & Kitchens would save the county just over $60,000 from what it had been paying.

According to the contract, that rate will not increase for the next three years and includes 80 additional hours of help if needed at no extra charge.

But not everyone was in agreement with the move.  Commissioner David Strickland worried there would be extra charges from the new CPA firm to help county employees with new computer software being installed.

“It seems like now is not the time to come and make changes with all of the changes and problems we’re having now with the software employees are having problems with,” he said. “Additionally, we have employees leaving and new employees coming in and getting trained.”

But Harper said he had full confidence that Duncan & Kitchens would not levy any extra charges.  After more discussion, the board voted t their regular meeting Monday night, the board voted unanimously to hire Duncan & Kitchens.