The Lower Nazareth township government does not publish meeting minutes from the elected Board of Auditors. After the Board of Auditors reorganization meeting in January 2018, I had politely requested access to past meeting minutes from the township manager, but this request was denied by the township manager. I had to resort to filing Right to Know Law requests to acquire this information. The result is the link below.
Lower Nazareth Township Board of Auditors Meeting Minutes 2000-2016
As can be seen, since the independent accounting firm replaced the board of auditors for the annual audit function beginning with the 2001 annual audit, the board has never completed another annual audit or audit of any kind. The board typically has just met once a year in January for the reorganization meeting. As I remarked after the 2018 reorganization meeting, auditors are paid $20 for about 15 minutes even though there is no mention of any compensation for this service in the second class township code under the section for compensation of auditors. As such, I refused the pay per the second class township code and the oath of office I took, plus it did not feel right even though I’ve paid thousands of dollars in taxes to the township in my lifetime.
In February 2018, I published 3 audit reports from 2014-2016 for the first time although it took a while to scan them by hand due to the township’s dictated circumstances of the RTKL meetings. I’m happy to report the township was advised by it’s attorney to publish the audit reports from 2011-2017 here as this is pertinent public information that should be accessible to taxpayers.
I’ve attached the audit reports from the year 2000 – the last year the audit was completed by the Board of Auditors – and 2001 – the first year I have a record of an independent auditor completing the audit for comparison. To me, the quality of the audit and the quality of the action items requested by either the board of auditors or the independent auditor in those years seem similar. See below.
In recent times, the township pays significantly more when an auditing firm is hired as I’ve noted in “Lower Nazareth Township Audit Practices Cost Taxpayers >$34,720.”
2000 Lower Nazareth Township Audit by Board of Auditors
2001 Lower Nazareth Township Audit by Serfass and Serfass Accounting
1999 Lower Nazareth Township Board of Auditors Audit Minutes
2000 Lower Nazareth Township Board of Auditors Audit Minutes
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