MIDDLEBORO — Middleboro Select Board members agreed at their April 10 meeting to put procedures in place for clearer oversight of town accounts.

The decision followed an audit requested by Select Board members following concerns raised about town revolving accounts, in particular that of the Tourism Committee.

Questions have been posed by some residents about certain expenditures by the committee.

In a January letter from town resident Paula Fay to Select Board chair Mark Germain, she asked whether specific actions taken by the committee might “either violate rules and regulations or place the town at risk’’ due to “the improper handling of charges associated with revolving account activities and potential conflict of interest activities.’’ 

Town Counsel Gregg Corbo of KP Law noted that the audit was not meant to investigate potential wrongdoing but to “identity any deficiencies’’ and to confirm there are appropriate controls to ensure that “taxpayer money is spent on what it should be spent on.’’

The audit, which was performed by Hague, Sahady and Co., public accountants from Fall River, noted that neither the Tourism Committee nor the Town of Middleboro overall “have internal controls in place to verify receipt and inspection of goods by vendors.’’

This lack of oversight, the audit reads, “increases the risk of overpayment to vendors for goods and services that were never received or were received in unsatisfactory quality.’’ 

Town Manager James McGrail said he intends to move forward in about a month to develop policies in conjunction with Robert Ekstrom, Middleboro’s newly named town accountant.

Having these policies would make sense for all boards, Select Board member Brian Giovanoni said. “The entire town needs a policy,’’ he said. He said it was “wrong’’ to “point the finger at [the] tourism committee’’ alone.

“How can I fault anyone if we don’t have a procedure in place?’’ he asked.

Tourism Committee Chair Nathan Demers said that the report indicates “there is no money mismanagement at all,’’ and that the “committee has always acted in good faith.’’

He said the committee has been used as a “political punching bag.’’ 

Fay noted that the audit was done strictly on procedures and not about content. 

“This was a process review,’’ she said, and not a forensic audit, which would explore a document for potential financial misconduct. The two are very different, she said.