It’s still unclear how long it will take to bring the Wilton Finance Department completely up to speed — or the extent of challenges being faced by new and temporary employees — but the interim chief financial officer told the Board of Finance on Tuesday, Oct. 14, that repairs were in process.
Joseph Centofanti, an employee of PKF O’Connor Davies, LLP, who has been serving in a per diem, part-time capacity as interim CFO for the town since the end of August, appeared virtually by Zoom for his first public meeting.
At the heart of the problems currently challenging the department, Centofanti said that the changeover from the previous accounting computer system called NewWorld, to the newer Munis system was at the root of many problems.
“The biggest thing we’re working on is trying to get Fiscal Year ’25 closed and the biggest thing that caused the delay, I think, was the conversion to Munis,” Centofanti said.
“I think it was converted before the audit was completed, so reconciling it back to the audit so it starts in the correct place and rolls forward,” he said, was important.
“There are still things that are being done in NewWorld,” he said. “That’s one of the things that I’m trying to solve sooner than later (because) there’s a lot of duplicate accounting that’s going on.”
“We’re definitely creating a little bit more efficiency by stopping doing some of the duplicate accounting and putting in some processes to kind of more formalize how something is done,” Centofanti said, “so if something like this ever happens again, there’ll be a little bit more structure left behind as far as what people should be working on, how it should be done, what forms should be used and that type of thing.”
Centofanti emphasized that the hiring of a new controller, Tracy Haberman, whom he said has been highlighting different control issues in the department as she’s been discovering them, is helping a good deal.
He attributed some of the issues to personnel problems, with newer employees not necessarily having been properly trained in how to handle certain aspects of their work.
Centofanti said that things are now being done “more correctly” with regard to bank records and journal entries.
“I’m not saying they weren’t happening before … I’m just basing it on what I saw when I walked in, not what was happening before,” he said.
Regarding account reconciliations, he said that previously some of the entries may not have been recorded “because a lot of the team members were new,” Centofanti said.
“I do ask, here and there, as things come up, Is there something written for this? How are we doing this?” he said.
Board of Finance member Sandy Arkell raised the question of whether the town is prepared for the impending annual audit, and how the current issues might impact the review.
“Have you been able to connect with our external auditor?” Arkell said.
Centofani said he and Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker did have a “quick call” with them, “…just to kind of understand where the audit process was, were they awaiting anything from the preliminary perspective.”
“I will probably be reconnecting … Since we still haven’t really gotten [Fiscal Year] ’25 where it needs to be, the timing on getting them trial balances might be a little bit delayed,” he said, meaning the auditors won’t have complete information to do their assessment.
“There’s things to work through, so I think the probability of an extension is pretty high at this point, noting it’s going to be pushed back at least into January.
“The trial balances are not to the point where they can audit them … Some numbers are still the prior year numbers,” Centofanti said, noting that it was likely that the town would again demonstrate material weakness in the audit.
“When they get numbers, they’re gonna be pretty solid numbers,” he said, however.
Centofanti said the current state of affairs, based on how things have been handled through this past year, “makes this much more complicated and a lot different than it was last year, because they’re gonna be auditing Munis.”
“That conversion was not where it needed to be,” he said.
First Selectman Toni Boucher, who was at the table for the discussion with the BOF members, pointed out that the town had experienced material weaknesses prior to her starting in the job.
Centofanti said he has engaged some additional people from his firm to help him in the work thus far, thought he didn’t share specifics. Boucher said she had given approval to his bringing in others to work.
While the other four BOS members were in personal attendance at the meeting, they did not join the group nor take place in the discussion.
In introducing himself, Centofanti told the BOF and public that he has not only worked with about 120 communities as a finance professional, he is also an elected official in his own community of Haddam. He said he has chaired its Board of Finance for 11 of the 16 years he has served on it, and also serves on the town’s Board of Education, where he chairs the finance committee.
“I have a pretty broad perspective of how government works,” he said, noting he has been involved in 50 or 60 fraud investigations in government.