A Nebraska state auditor’s examination reviewing the records for 2016-17 at Chadron, Peru and Wayne State colleges presented many discrepancies with an overall error rate of 77 percent. Adjustments needed to be made on 74 of 96 line items.

Findings in Wayne State College records that involved errors in the athletics department have since been corrected, said Jay Collier, WSC director of College Relations.

“The issues that came from the audit report which came out of the Auditor of Public Accounts office were addressed right away,” Collier said. “We classified items one way, and the auditor’s office wanted them classified a different way, so that’s the discrepancy. They were reclassified and everything was good to go. All misclassifications were corrected right away.”

The Nebraska state auditor wrote in the report that the Nebraska State College System lacked personnel with the required knowledge and expertise to prepare accurate financial statements in accordance with governmental accounting standards.

“We aren’t making excuses here; we take these issues seriously,” Collier said. “The system office worked with us to identify who we needed to hire to help us do a better job, and there is a comptroller being hired for the college whose job will be to oversee all things related to audits.”

Previous circulating Nebraska news articles suggested that an investigation is ongoing regarding errors in WSC gate admission revenue. The articles stated that matters relating to Wayne State’s former assistant athletic director were referred to the Wayne County Attorney, the Nebraska State Patrol and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.

“I have no law enforcement investigative reports at this time,” Wayne County Attorney Mike Pieper said. “The proceedings start when we receive law enforcement investigative reports to review for potential charges. I have no investigative report involving the Wayne State audit at this time.”

In spite of the negative light the audit findings may have seemed to shed on Wayne State College, Collier believes audit findings will always be part of the process.

“It wasn’t just Wayne State in the audit findings, it was the entire system,” Collier said. “We want to be clear that we are not making excuses and we aren’t running away from the issues. There are always going to be findings in audits, that’s what audits are for. We will continue to work to improve our processes.”