NATCHEZ — Adams County supervisors hired a local accounting firm Thursday to prepare the county’s financial records.

The county will pay the Gillon Group approximately $24,000 a year with a goal to help speed up the annual audit process for 2016 and hopefully enable submitting the audit on time.

The county previously paid Shoemaker and Company of Clinton approximately $10,000 a year to handle the same service, but Gillon CPA Deanne Tanksley said the group would be present every month performing activities including reviewing finances, attending board meetings and reviewing board minutes.

“It would be providing the county an extra set of eyes for oversight,” Tanksley said. “It would free up county employees to not have to do some of the audit work during crunch time when trying to get out W2s or some other project.”

Tanksley said if the firm were hired to do the work in 2017, the benefit for monthly check ups would be even bigger. County Administrator Joe Murray said the county would bid out the aspects of the audit for 2017 and 2018 in November.

The county is late on its 2015 audit, which was due on June 30, 2016, and Adams County Board of Supervisors President Mike Lazarus said hiring Gillon Group is an attempt to clear that problem up going forward.

“We are trying to break that trend and make it quicker and easier for whoever does the audit,” Lazarus said. “And in my mind, it’s like getting another county employee, who is highly qualified, for $24,000 a year without benefits, which is cheap, helping us reconcile our finances and keep up with it as we go along.”

Lazarus said audits being late are not only an Adams County problem, as many counties around Mississippi are facing the same issue.

“Audits across the state are a problem — they are always late,” Lazarus said. “The reason is we are running out of people who want to fool with audits.

“Whoever does the audit often ends up having to come back and make adjustments to the finances which just slows things down.”

Murray said having someone present every month would be a big benefit.

“They will have a presence every month, not just three or four months like a typical financial preparer,” Murray said. “I think it will take a big burden off our bookkeeping department to let them do some of the things they need to be doing.”

Murray said having someone local would also be helpful.

“I think it will be good to have someone local — it will be a lot easier corresponding,” Murray said. “It is a lot better to have that personal relationship with someone local. I think they are more in tune to what is going on in the county.”

Murray said the county would have to hire an auditor, as the state no longer allows an auditing firm to handle both finances and the audit. The county’s current auditor is Fortenberry and Ballard of Brandon.