FERRIDAY — Depending on the town’s answers, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office could close the file on the Town of Ferriday’s recent audit quickly.

“When we get their report in, we look at that, and if we think they have a reasonable plan of action we won’t require anything else of them,” Legislative Auditor’s Office Director of Advisory Services Joy Irwin said. “Then we close the file and don’t ask again and continue to monitor (the town) for the future.”

The town received a letter from the auditor’s office Tuesday stating that it had 30 days to answer the findings of the audit.

The audit found a number of problems in the town’s accounting and utility billing systems.

Those findings included an informal system in which checks from some customers were substituted for cash from other customers when they made utility payments, funds that were being lost due to faulty utility meters and a lack of consistency in who performed the utility clerk’s job.

The questions about the check substitution scheme are marked as already corrected in the audit, and the board of aldermen is expected to pass an ordinance tonight that will result in an overhaul of the town’s water and water billing system, which will correct many of the problems noted in the audit.

The audit also recommended that the town try to recollect $3,739.16 that the auditor believed was improperly paid to former Mayor Gene Allen and $19,525 paid to a local church for damage caused by sewage that backed up from town sewer lines.

For the money paid to the church, the auditor advised that the town either collect it from the church itself or from its insurance company.

If the legislative auditor’s office does not think the town’s response is adequate, it may call for more information or even send advisors to the town, Irwin said.

“They may go out and monitor the situation, or we may have the (town) government come to our office and talk about what the problems are and how they are going to get them fixed,” she said.

If things do not progress and the auditor’s office is not getting the answers it needs, it may require the town government to appear before the audit advisory council. The outcome from there depends on the advisory council.

“We use a lot of judgment when working with these entities,” Irwin said.

Mayor Glen McGlothin said the town will do whatever is necessary to come into compliance.

“We are going to have to get this money or figure out where it is going to come from,” he said. “Whatever the auditor says to do is what we are going to do. I’m not going to mess around with the auditors.”