PARKERSBURG — West Virginia University at Parkersburg received a “clean audit” report for its finances over the last fiscal year.

The West Virginia University at Parkersburg Board of Governors accepted the audit report at its monthly meeting Wednesday at the school.

“WVU Parkersburg has once again achieved a clean audit for Fiscal Year 2016,” WVU Parkersburg President Fletcher Lamkin said. “Despite the financial challenges the state is facing, the college has maintained a healthy financial position by implementing cost saving measures.

“This is a very good result, something that was not the case here three to four years, but is definitely the case here now. It is important for us as a college to manage our resources effectively,” he said.

The report findings show the school’s commitment to straightening out issues that came to light over a year ago through a legislative audit of WVU-P’s purchasing procedures from July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014, where a number of problems were found and where one person was prosecuted for misusing funds, Lamkin said.

No one who was in place at that time is still employed by the university and the school has addressed those concerns, Lamkin said.

“As always, our goal is to continuously monitor and improve our accounting processes,” Lamkin said. “We are proud of the audit results and the efforts of the entire campus community in ensuring that our college is fiscally responsible.

“We must continue to be good stewards of the public funds that affect our ability to provide quality educational programs to the community,” he said.

The school has also tried to anticipate cuts in state funding and plan accordingly to be prepared when cuts have been called for, Lamkin said. The school is getting students to pay tuition in a more timely manner with fewer delays, which has resulted in having money available to address other needs at the school.

Vice President of Finance Administration Alice Harris said WVU Parkersburg’s financial statements were in order with standard accounting principles.

“We had no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses,” she said. “We are constantly monitoring and improving our internal controls.

“We take our responsibility very seriously to be good stewards of the money the state provides to us that we rely on to operate.”

The auditors recommended the school should have between three and six months of unrestricted net assets on its books. The school has 3.3 months of operating expenses.

“We are close to the bottom end of that, but we are in better shape than many higher education institutions nationwide,” Harris said. “They are happy with where we are at compared to others.”

WVU at Parkersburg has had an increase in cash of $1.8 million, of which over $500,000 came from the sale of the Downtown Center, that was expended over the last year on capital improvements. The school had over $200,000 in unspent grant funds, which were recently spent on an air process control unit, Harris said.

“The rest came from us being very careful and conservative in how we spent money,” Harris said.

Harris said the school has faced some form of budget cuts over the last few years.

“(The increase in funds) gives us flexibility if we have a major issue that comes up that we need to address,” she said.

In other business, the board approved a memorandium of understanding with Wood County Schools with programs taking place at the Caperton Center that will be operated jointly by both groups.