NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez’s annual financial audit for the 2013-2014 fiscal year is nearing eight months past due.

Assistant city clerk Wendy McClain said the independent auditor, Deanne Tanksley with the Gillon Group, was making progress.

“I know that Deanne is getting close to finishing the 2013-2014 audit,” McClain said. “Once she finishes that one we will be moving right into the next audit for 2014-2015.”

Tanksley said her office’s policy is not to speak publicly about ongoing projects, but said she has been keeping McClain and the board of aldermen updated on her progress.

“When we get it done, it’ll be done at that point,” she said.

The state’s deadline for the most recent fiscal year’s audit, 2014-2015, is June 30, 2016.

The city is expected to send its financial records to Tanksley every year when the fiscal year ends in September, but the records for fiscal year 2013-2014 did not reach Tanksley’s office until August 2015.

The records for fiscal year 2014-2015, which ended in September 2015, are ready to be sent to the auditor as soon as Tanksley is ready for them, McClain said.

The Gillon Group compiles the audit in the statewide-accepted format, and then returns it to clerk’s office, McClain said. The audit goes to the Natchez Board of Aldermen for approval before being sent to the state auditor’s office in Jackson.

In a December Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting, Tanksley said she expected to finish the audit in January.

Tanksley said in December her health and bad bookkeeping from the previous city accountant had made work on the audit difficult.

McClain said in December the clerk’s office would be changing its bookkeeping practices to keep future audits on track.

McClain joined the clerk’s staff in July.

The unexpected departure of a city accountant in June 2015 put the clerk’s office behind in preparing materials to send to the city’s independent auditor, City Clerk Donnie Holloway said.

Grant funding to local governments can be cut off if timely financial audits are not completed, but community development director James Johnston said he has continued to apply for and receive grants regardless, including the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s solid waste assistance grant, which the city received this month.