The Board of Finance hopes a new accounting policy proposed last week will make late bill deliveries and last minute money transfers by Town Hall department heads a thing of the past.
A new overdraft budget policy — penned by Finance Director Jim Hliva at the request of the Board of Finance — is in response to bills arriving at Hliva’s office up to five weeks late, causing late fees and inaccurate records of town expenditures.
Hliva said the biggest offenders are the ambulance corps, the Department of Public Works and the library.
In addition, Hliva said there is often not enough money in those departments’ line item accounts to cover the costs.
“Vendors are calling the finance department saying they have not been paid and that creates more work for my office,” Hliva said.
According to the town charter, line item transfers require a request from department heads to the Board of Finance to use money from the towns’ contingency fund before the money is spent.
Hliva said last year the Board of Finance received 40 to 50 budget line item transfer requests from various departments at the end of the fiscal year to account for overages in line item accounts.
“We want to make sure department heads manage their budgets throughout the year, and make the transfers as they need them,” he said.
The proposed policy holds department heads accountable to department spending only what is approved at town meeting, making transfer requests prior to spending if a line item overage is anticipated.
During a discussion of the proposed policy last Monday, Lila Ferrillo, chairman of the Board of Finance, said department heads should be keeping better track of their spending.
“We (Board of Finance) are trying to put the horse back in front of the cart,” she said. “Department heads should be making the transfer requests first, or we are not going to pay them (the bills).”
