NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez’s audit for 2013-2014 has finally arrived.

The City’s outside auditor, Deanne Tanksley of the Gillon Group, presented an almost-completed draft of the 2013-2014 audit to the Natchez Board of Aldermen Tuesday.

Tanksley ranked the city’s audit a B-plus, and said the city’s finances in fiscal year 2013-2014 operated at a $1.5 million surplus.

Click here for a copy of the draft audit.

The audit was due in June 2015. Tanksley said the delays were due largely to bookkeeping mistakes by the city’s previous accountant.

The 2013-2014 audit includes 14 pages of adjustments in order to correct those bookkeeping mistakes, which Tanksley said is a personal record.

“And they’re big adjustments — several thousands of dollars,” Tanksley said. “These are big corrections. But it’s important the city knows where it is, even if it’s behind schedule.”

Many of those bookkeeping mistakes had to do with transfers between the more than 80 accounts the city has. When money is transferred between accounts, Tanksley said she must locate the records of the money leaving one account and entering another.

However, the previous accountant, who quit in June 2015, often failed to record those correctly, Tanksley said.

“I did everything in my power, but they still don’t zero out,” Tanksley said. “There are still transfers that got recorded as revenue or expenses.”

Those remaining mistakes could not be corrected, Tanksley said, resulting in four qualified sections of her audit opinion, which she explained indicate an “except for” clause.

Tanksley reported city finances are accounted for in seven of the 11 completed opinion units of the audit, but not in governmental activities, the general fund, the debt service fund and the aggregate remaining fund information units.

“We are anxious to get (the city’s 2014-2015 audit) done, so that’s what we had to do,” Tanksley said.

Three more opinion units have yet to be completed, but will be part of the final draft Tanksley expects to present to the aldermen in their March 22 meeting.

Tanksley explained the many accounts the city has open have all been writing checks, rather than using a unified system. The many-accounts system makes it easier to separate funds and helps to track the city’s money, but highly complicates the audit, Tanksley said.

Assistant City Clerk Wendy McClain and the other new employees have been very helpful in correcting the mistakes made before they began working for the city, Tanksley said.

Natchez Mayor Butch Brown said the personnel changes in the City Clerk’s office have greatly improved the quality of the city’s bookkeeping.

“This audit does not reflect the work of our current program we have in place,” Brown said. “Get this draft audit adjusted, corrected, adopt it, and call it history.”

McClain said the office’s bookkeeping practices have been changed, which should make future audits much easier.

Tanksley said her office would begin working on the city’s 2014-2015 audit, which is due June 30, 2016, in April.

Tanksley expects to be able to complete the audit in a month and present it in May, ahead of the deadline, and put the city back on track.

The previous accountant Tanksley said was to blame for the bad bookkeeping and audit delays was with the city until June 2015, but McClain said she has already begun correcting the nine remaining months of her bookkeeping.