As a precautionary measure, Flathead County officials had a financial review conducted of the Olney Fire District’s financial records after all the members of that board resigned last August.

The review found no major problems.

County commissioners served as the district’s interim board until November when they appointed four new board members. A fifth  board position remains vacant and commissioners are accepting letters of interest from people who want to be appointed to the board.

Because there were complaints voiced to county officials and rumors circulating in the community, the county “thought we’d clear the decks and have this done,” county Administrator Mike Pence said of the financial review.

Joseph Eve Certified Public Accountants in Kalispell was hired to conduct the review and Eve presented his report to commissioners earlier this month.

He said no incidents of fraud nor questionable actions were found. Eve said his firm opted for a review rather than a full audit because the fire district is small and a financial review “is more likely to run up fraud” than an audit.

Some record-keeping and financial documents were inadequate based on public record-keeping regulations, he said. But, Eve said, that is not uncommon among volunteer boards. He was not suspicious of those errors, but wanted the commissioners to know they existed.

For example, he said, the cash balance reported July 1, 2010 — the start of a new fiscal year — differed from the cash balance reported June 30, 2010 — the end of the previous fiscal year.

“It’s strange, but I’m not so sure it merits any further review by us,” Eve said. And, that wasn’t the fiscal year his firm was hired to review.

“My gut feeling is whoever was filling out the reports didn’t know what they were doing,” Eve said.

He suggested that county employees “dig a little deeper to determine what happened.”

Eve also said the board members had been making deposits monthly, but are supposed to do that weekly.

While board minutes were “pretty abbreviated and brief and contained no listings of receivables,” Eve said “there is nothing from any journal entries to indicate fraud or something wrong.”

And, he said, some checks were issued without the receipts to back them up being kept. “But they don’t look to have been inappropriate disbursements.”

County Finance Director Sandy Carlson said she already has begun her efforts to explain to the new Olney board members how to maintain the district’s financial records.

She met with them last week to discuss proper records maintenance. Carlson said she plans to hold similar meetings with other fire district boards.

Carlson said the county can minimize problems with boards mishandling financial issues by educating board members about their financial responsibilities.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.