Local News in Brief : Audit of Municipal Funds

The administrator of Hawaiian Gardens has called for a 10-year audit of municipal finances, charging that years of overspending and sloppy accounting procedures have caused the tiny city’s budget reserves to dip dangerously low.

A special audit recently conducted by the city Finance Department shows that officials have been overspending “for some years” and that reserves have been used to “shore up the budget,” City Administrator Darwin G. Pichetto said. “We are at this time trying to find out why the city has been operating on a yearly shortfall.”

The audit shows that, for the last two years, city officials have spent $1.2 million more than they have received in general fund revenue, Pichetto said. The use of unbudgeted funds for programs has left the city with about $300,000 in its reserve fund, he said.

The new evidence of overspending adds to the financial woes of the council, which is still struggling to draft a 1988-89 budget even though the fiscal year began six weeks ago.

The council is considering cutting popular programs as a way to balance the budget by September.