BENTON – Results of a forensic audit of the Franklin County Treasurer’s Office has been released to the public, and reports say in the auditor’s opinion, the Treasurer Steve Vercellino doesn’t possess the skills and abilities necessary to perform his duties as treasurer.

According to The Southern, the audit covers the last two fiscal years that ended November 30, 2022, and that the auditor claims in his report that deficiencies in financial reporting and the inability to submit timely financial information will have a substantially negative [affect] on the financial operation of the county and impact the county board’s ability to plan for the future.

The Southern says the audit revealed a pattern in lack of compliance and consistent errors in financial reporting that have still not been resolved and have become more numerous.

Among the issues discovered were errors, misstatements and unusual transactions by the treasurer including unusual transactions, checks that were not written in sequential order, bank reconciliations that did not agree, checks written by the treasurer’s office that were written back to the treasurer’s office, checks from county residents not deposited in a timely manner, and denial of a request to allow a former employee to extract data.

Vercellino has served as Franklin County Treasurer since 2019.

We emailed Vercellino Wednesday morning seeking comment about the audit. At this time, we have received no response from the Treasurer’s office.