Release of the city’s fuel use audit has been pushed back to late May or early June, according to Cape auditor Margaret Krym.
The change was brought about for two reasons, she said, after previously announcing the audit would be completed in April.
“Valid concerns” from the city’s management following a recent meeting need to be addressed, she said. And one of Lee County’s key members of the audit team doing the work for Cape Coral took vacation time.
An interim report will also not be made available, she said.
“We really feel it would be a better representation and have better value if we don’t piecemeal this so much,” Krym said.
She said she would like to have something for city council, even if it is an interim report, before the board members take their summer hiatus.
But if that proves impossible, then city council, and the public, will have to wait for the full report.
“We’ll continue to do all we can to get the report out as soon as we can,” Krym added.
The audit has been ongoing since Feb. 15 when county and city staff met for the “entrance conference,” according to Krym.
The issue of missing fuel has been ongoing since last November, however, after special consultant Bill Towler stated thousands of gallons of fuel worth millions of dollars could not be unaccounted for.
Towler stated, and wrote in his report, that no fuel management policies or procedures were in place, fuel deliveries were unmonitored, fuel pump security was easily circumvented and that control of the system was ineffective.
County auditors have been studying that process, along with the historical data from the last five years, to verify the report and subsequent statements.
Krym said the county has billed the $19,784 through April 5, with another invoice due very soon, she said.
The money comes from the auditor’s budget, and was made largely possible by the vacancies in that office. Krym said the department saved $125,000 this year due to staffing levels.
The meeting with city management is standard procedure, giving them the opportunity to comment on the findings thus far, according to Krym.