Several residents showed up at the Allenstown Board of Selectmen’s meeting Monday, April 7, hoping to discuss accounting errors found in the town’s 2006 audit, as well more recent errors detected by an independent consulting firm.

Selectmen decided to reserve the discussion on the accounting discrepancies for nonpublic session after reviewing the administrative assistant’s plan to correct t he errors.

According to the 2006 audit report dated Jan. 31, 2008, from t he town’s auditor, Plodzik and Sanderson, several errors had been made in balance transfers, some accounts had not been reconciled correctly, and the town’s preparation and review of financial statements was not in accordance with widely accepted accounting practices.

“The government-wide statement of net assets does not include all of the Town’s capital assets nor the accumulated depreciation on those assets; and the government-wide statement of activities does not include depreciation expense related to those assets. These amounts have not been determined because the Town has not inventoried all of its capital assets at historical cost,” the report states.

“Therefore, in our opinion, the financial statements referred to above (included in the report) do not present fairly the financial position of the government activities of the Town of Allenstown at December 31, 2006, and the changes in financial position thereof for the year then ended in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America,” the report goes on to say.

Kelley Collins, administrative assistant for the town since 2005, was on medical leave for more than three months following a skiing accident. During that time, said Selectman Tom Gilligan, other town employees took over her day-to-day duties.

It is still unclear who made the mistakes, Gilligan said, but Collins has developed a timeline to fix them and is updating the Board of Selectmen weekly on her progress.

An outside accounting firm, Municipal Resources, Inc., is working with the town to correct some of the mistakes after meeting with selectmen at their meeting March 17.

Municipal Resources Inc. made several recommendations which included setting up funds that were voted in the 2006 election that mistakenly slipped in under the radar, correcting errors in recording encumbrances and expenditures, and regularly reconciling the accounts.

Allenstown resident Pauline Boutin said she’s not sure whether Collins should remain in her position while the errors are still being looked at. “I came to find out whether they’ve taken any action,” Boutin said at the Town Hall on Monday, April 7.

The group of residents, including former Selectman Sandra McKenney, prepared a statement to present to the Board of Selectmen, outlining concerns surrounding the errors and the board’s disclosure of them.

“Because of these inadequacies, in 2007-2008 Allenstown has incurred additional expenses by hiring consultants from MRI, grant writing purposes and possibly legal services,” the statement reads, going on to say those costs should be deducted from Collins’ salary.

“We’ve never had a report like that,” said McKenney.