Fair Details Bookkeeping Improvements : Finances: The report responds to a state audit. A district attorney’s spokesman says an inquiry has found no violations.

The Ventura County Fair Board delivered a 26-page report to state auditors on Thursday outlining its work to correct bookkeeping practices that state auditors found to be improper six weeks ago after examining the fair’s books.

A state audit released Feb. 21 found dozens of faults in the fair’s books, including unpaid state sales tax and the improper transfer of $337,129 in horse-race betting proceeds to the fair’s operating budget. The audit required an answer.

Fair Secretary-Manager Michael A. Paluszak said he drafted the report, received the fair board’s approval and sent the document to the state Division of Fairs and Expositions.

Kim Myrman, the division’s assistant director, said she has not read the report but is pleased with the fair board’s efforts to straighten out its accounting methods.

“We anticipate they will be implementing those items outlined in the audit report, and I know they have already done so on a number of the items,” Myrman said. “We’re real comfortable with what we’ve already seen being implemented down there, and I’m real confident that practice will continue.”

Meanwhile, the Ventura County district attorney’s office is expected to end its investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by previous fair administrations, said Donald C. Coleman, special assistant district attorney.

“We anticipate we’ll close out our investigation with the finding there was no criminal violation of the law whatsoever,” Coleman said. “The audit showed they did some things with money that other fairs had not done, in terms of using money from gambling, but that was not a violation of the law; it was just improper procedure.”

The report said officials will rectify bookkeeping procedures for all aspects of the fair, ranging from front-gate receipts to the closing balance sheet.

“I’m going to guess that 50% or better of their findings or recommendations are things we have already done or are already in the process of doing,” Paluszak said Thursday.

“It’s been real time-consuming,” Paluszak said of the long review of the fair’s books. “But . . . it certainly provides us with somewhat

of a checklist of things we need to work on. It acknowledges the things we’ve already corrected and certainly brings us up to speed in terms of where we stand relative to . . . the state rules and regulations.”

In response to criticisms in the audit, the board’s report said fair officials have:

* Ended unauthorized transfers of horse-race betting proceeds to the fair’s operating budget, which amounted to $337,129 in 1988 and ’89.

* Set up accurate bookkeeping systems to keep close track of fair finances and pay appropriate taxes, including state sales tax on souvenirs that was unpaid in earlier years.

* Made plans to conduct the first inventory of equipment since 1976 to update property ledgers.

* Corrected the auditors on their criticism of free admission for children and senior citizens during 1988, 1989 and 1990.

Auditors said the state Food and Agriculture Code allows only one free admission for children and none for senior citizens. But the report quotes the code as saying state-funded fairs “shall permit” at least one free day for children, and said fair officials will continue offering two free days for children and one for senior citizens.