MINERSVILLE - The borough council made a motion Tuesday to hold the auditing firm of Abbott, Davidson, Weiss & Co. LLC, Bethlehem, in contempt of court for not completing the borough's 2009 and 2010 audits.
"The auditors from Abbott, Davidson & Weiss, particularly Bob Davidson, was provided all this information to perform these audits to be submitted to the state and the federal government," said Minersville solicitor Albert Evans, Pottsville. "He didn't do it."
Evans said that Davidson was ordered by the court in March to complete them and he still hasn't done it, so the next step is to file a motion for contempt, where the court will fine him and hold him in contempt of court until he does.
"It's basically a penalty fine that he will get assessed in addition to the requirement to have to complete the audit," Evans said. "There are CDBG funds that can be released to us for street improvements that we've got to get."
Although there was some progress with the audits having been filed with the state Department of Community & Economic Development, they are not complete.
The firm was appointed Jan. 4, 2010, based on the bidding process, to perform them and the audits are required by the state Bureau of Audits.
Abbott, Davidson, Weiss & Co. LLC had not finished the audits by June 1, 2011, when the state DCED notified Minersville, after the borough had applied for a grant, that it would be ineligible to receive aid until the audits were completed.
On Oct. 7, 2011, the firm promised to complete the audits by Oct. 31, but it had yet to complete them Feb. 28 when the borough complaint was filed, which was a breach of the contract between it and the borough.
On Feb. 1, DCED notified the borough that it had been approved for a $95,481 grant but that it would lose the grant if the audits were not completed.
In other business, the borough council authorized borough Manager Joseph Bass to negotiate the purchase of real estate for a proposed municipal building.
Although in the early stages, borough council President Helen Droskinis said that they are looking at a property at the end of town to move the borough office since the borough is running out of room in its current building.
