City of Jackson Hires Internal Auditor to Fix Pattern of Late Audits

The City of Jackson missed its statutory deadline for the fiscal year 2025 municipal audit, marking the second year financial reviews faced delays, WBBJ-TV reported. State regulations require local governments to submit formal checks of their financial records to the State Comptroller within six months of closing their fiscal year. The fiscal year 2024 audit also arrived months late, according to state records.

State Rejects Budget Over Audit Delay

The persistent delays prompted administrative fallout in September when the State Comptroller rejected Jackson’s 2027 budget because the fiscal year 2025 audit remained uncompleted. John Dunn of the state office pointed to a growing procedural problem, stating that the municipality had developed a clear pattern of late financial filings.

Mayor Scott Conger addressed the timing issues through a September 16 statement on Facebook, attributing part of the discrepancy to software vendor complications. The city reported that the vendor generated paper calculation variances across multiple municipal funds, which included nearly $3.7 million tied up in the general fund.

New Internal Auditor Appointed

To address the oversight failures, the city announced the appointment of Earnest Jackson III as its new internal auditor. According to information released by the city through City of Jackson, TN, Jackson is a retired U.S. Coast Guard senior chief petty officer with more than 20 years of financial management, procurement, and regulatory compliance experience. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Finance.

In his new municipal role, Jackson reports directly to the mayor with an oversight reporting relationship to the audit committee. His responsibilities include conducting departmental audits, evaluating accounting systems, and monitoring internal controls to protect municipal assets. My office will take a direct approach to ensure accountability, transparency, and oversight through clear reporting to ensure that taxpayers know where resources are being used, how they are being used, and those sorts of things, Jackson III said.

Jackson Plans to Tighten Supervision of Technology Providers

Jackson outlined plans to tighten supervision of the technology providers utilized by municipal departments. My office in its own will do our best to ensure we are compliant with those things that have been used to support the city and its resources, Jackson III stated, according to WBBJ-TV reporting.

Beyond investigating past discrepancies, the internal auditor’s duties include developing scheduled annual audit plans, conducting fixed asset reviews, and monitoring corrective action protocols across all city departments, including Financial Planning, Purchasing, Human Resources, Payroll, Information Technology, Risk Management, and Public Safety. City officials have not yet confirmed the exact completion date for the delayed fiscal year 2025 audit.