KILLIAN — An audit of Killian found that the town may have violated the state code of ethics by purchasing tires from a business owned by the then-mayor's son, as well as several other financial and clerical violations.

The independent audit, released by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office on Monday, said that, during the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2024, the mayor's son's company was used to buy tires with public money. According to the audit, there was no evidence of competitive bidding documentation of a conflict-of-interest disclosure, a violation of the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics.

During this time, Mayor Ronnie Sharp was in office.

"The Town should implement policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics," the audit recommended. 

The audit also said that six of the eight discrepancies Killian had were repeated from the prior year's report. 

The report says that Killian lacked supporting documentation for several of its expenses, lacked adequate segregation of duties over its accounting functions and lacked adequate controls to track and monitor its assets.

The town also did not have substantial practices for storing, issuing and accounting for traffic tickets and citations, as well as keeping track of traffic fines. 

To solve the issues of disorganization, the auditor's office recommended the implementation of "procedures to ensure all capital assets are tagged with the Town's name and physical inventories should be performed."

The town additionally failed to file its financial statements with the Legislative Auditor's Office within the required timeframe, as well as failing to amend its general fund budget with when actual revenues were less than budgeted revenues by more than 5% and actual expenditures exceeded budgeted expenditures by more than 5%

"The Town should monitor its budget to actual revenues and expenditures on a monthly basis and amend the budget as to be in compliance with state statutes as necessary," the auditor's office recommended. 

The full audit can be read here.