Officials are not immediately identifying the outside agency that will undergo a forensic audit costing the county $10,000.

County commissioners on Wednesday approved the audit request by Controller Ben Holland and agreed to his request not to identify the agency until the audit is completed at the end of this year or early next year.

Holland said new leadership of the agency, which works with the county and receives most of its funding through it, raised concerns and requested the audit.

“I’ll just say that the agency involved was forthcoming with the information so they actually raised the concerns,” Holland said.

The Butler Eagle is filing a records request to learn more about the organization being audited.

Commissioners approved an engagement letter with RKL of Lancaster for a phase one audit of the agency. RKL is charging a $5,000 retainer, which is being counted toward the $10,000 cost of the audit.

Holland said he believes in transparency in government, but identifying the agency could impair successful completion of the audit. He said the county must be careful to avoid accusations. He said he hopes the phase one audit is all that is needed, but noted he is being optimistic.

It is possible that no wrongdoing will be uncovered. If so, the audit will hopefully result in better internal controls within the agency, he said.

He said county government accounting procedures make forensic audits rare occurrences. Unlike state and local governments, counties receive most of their funding through their controllers’ offices.

“So it’s vetted. It’s pre-audited, and I would say even of those monies that are not, they’re generally held in a custodial capacity,” Holland said.

He said those practices reduce risk.

“Unfortunately, there are other streams of funding that are not spent that way and that’s where these situations arise,” Holland said.

Commissioner Leslie Osche said she hopes the audit results in the agency’s desire for improvements to practices and policies.

“Oftentimes, when you change leadership and things like that, you need them to take a look at it,” Osche said.

According to the engagement letter with RKL, the phase one initial assessment includes a review of compliance with county agreements and state laws, an evaluation of financial transactions and flow of public money, an assessment of the adequacy of internal controls, inquiring and documenting irregularities or control weaknesses, and proposing recommendations for corrective action.

Phase two, which requires approval of a separate engagement letter and must be requested by the county, would include a review of additional documents and information to support the audit, agreed-upon testing of a select sample of transactions and review of supporting documents, and preparation of a report on the findings, according to the letter.

The cost of phase two would be determined after phase one is completed.