By Francisco Villegas  |Staff Writer|

The city of San Bernardino continues to miss its audit deadlines after falling into bankruptcy.

Issues surrounding the incomplete audit include withheld grants for San Bernardino Employment and Training Agencies, according to The Sun.

The delay of the audit is stacking up deadlines and requests for city hall staff, according to The Sun.

The annual audit for San Bernardino is nowhere near completed. It is now two days incomplete after it was promised and over a year and a half of the state’s deadline, according to The Sun.

Auditor Jim Godsey believes more information is still required due to some of the firm’s questions being unanswered by the city.

According to The Sun, residents are starting to suspect the quick tabling of a scheduled update because no one has publicly opposed the publishing of the audit, which is legally required.

Students and community members voiced their concerns over the audit.

“I think it’s important to conduct audits because it can identify potential tax fraud from companies out here,” said student Diego Ruiz.

“I highly doubt this is going to come out before the elections in November,” said San Bernardino resident Scott Olson, who opposes all but one of the sitting council members.

“Who are they protecting, what are they hiding?” asked Rayan Hugen, a writer for the The Sun.

“Some council members criticized RAMS (Rogers, Anderson, Malody and Scott, LLP), including present councilman John Valdivia, who said they were “complicit” in the bankruptcy, and later—as is standard—the city switched to a new firm, MGO (Macias Gini and O’Connell LLP), continued Rayan.

After filing bankruptcy, questions unanswered and the repeat of audit delays, San Bernardino residents question why the city changed audit firms.

“City officials have argued over how much to blame city staff and how much to blame the audit firm since March, when MGO first said it would need to double its initial cost estimate to complete the audit and might not meet a May 30 deadline,” according to The Sun.

Due to location, CSUSB is affected by the city audit.
“CSUSB is a part of San Bernardino and it is important for students, faculty and staff alike to remember that. Therefore, it is vital for us to see the problems the city is facing and provide our skills and expertise to assist as much as possible,” said Professor Marc Fudge of the public administration department.

“The issues they are having regarding the audit delay are multifaceted, but hopefully they are headed in the right direction,” continued Fudge.

“I do not get the sense that the vast majority of students care a great deal about city government and politics. I’d ask how many actually know the name of the mayor of San Bernardino?” said Fudge.

When students were asked about the San Bernardino audit, a good number questioned what a city audit is.

“A public presentation of the findings in the 2012-13 audit is scheduled for the Nov. 2 City Council meeting, according to City Clerk Gigi Hanna.” according to The Sun.