Maine Municipal Tax Collectors' & Treasurers' Association
Home	Training	Executive Board		Newsletters	Links	Forms
MMTCTA List Serve					Back to List Serve Index

Posted by Julie Reed, Veazie, May 15, 2007: I know that this is a little off the subject but the Town manager asked if I could gather some diffrent  auditing services RFP from some other towns. He really does not like ours and wants to see what other communities are requiring of there auditors. Our auditors are great but he always wants more for nothing but isnt that just the way...lol Thanks for any follow up - It will be greatly appricated!

Responses: Are you going to the Tax Collector/Treasurer Conference in Orono on Thurs? There will be a round table discussion on this topic. (Vera Parent, Peru)

No I am not able at this time to attend the Thursday class. (Julie Giles, Waterboro)

If your town manager is a member of the Maine Town & City Management Association (and the membership list says he is), there are several audit RFP's posted on their website at the following link: http://www.mtcma.org/mem/Resourelib/Contracts/Audit/Auditindex.htm (Stu Marckoon, Lamoine)

In Jay we use RHR Smith & Associates and I really like them. They go over and above what is required. They can be reached at 1-800-300-7708 (Lisa Brundage, Jay)

During my time in Maine I have had the opportunity to utilize the services from two good firms.  Runyon Kersteen and Oullette of South Portland (773-2986) and Cummings Lamont and McNamee of Kennebunk (985-3339). I look for the auditors that will utilize GAAP and GASB as guidelines when they conduct their engagement and their periodic testing of different aspects of our financials and transactions.  Most firms stick to the standard services and I find you need to interview them utilizing questions that probe their methodology.  Given two equally capable firms the pricing issue is usually the deciding factor. Many firms like a minimum of three years so that they can average out their costs knowing in year I they may have “bought” the contract for your town at a very low price.  For a budget that has about $6M on the town side with two enterprise funds you should be able to get a full audit package for around $11,000.  CAUTION though if you only look at price since some of the extra services you should get are not provided by the one and two person operations even though they are less expensive. (Mitch Berkowitz, Bridgton)

In Rangeley we use RHR Smith and they are terrific.  I would definitely recommend them. (Scott Gesuldi, Rangeley)

The Town of Newry uses RHR Smith also, they are great ! (Loretta Powers, Newry)

The City of Eastport uses RHR Smith out of Buxton. We think they are great. If you have the Trio system they know it inside out which is really great for us. and I agree with Julie from Jay they go above and beyond. (Helen Archer, Eastport)