Thursday, April 11, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
By Rachael Levy
and Jeff Schweers
The Clark County Commission and the Las Vegas City Council ordered their staffs to conduct independent audits of Silver State Disposal Service in 1994, but the work was never done.
Instead of performing the audits, the staffs examined Silver State's books and created a new method of determining rate increases, Assistant County Manager Dale Askew said.
A rate increase method approved by the county in February permits Silver State to raise collection rates to ensure it will have a 7 percent profit after taxes.
Askew said the staffs chose not to conduct the audits because they would have duplicated the work of Silver State's own auditor, Piercy Bowler Taylor and Kern of Las Vegas.
"The fact that Silver State was already doing it, I felt we were already meeting that requirement," the assistant county manager said. The results "would have been the same whether we paid for it or Silver State paid."
The accounting firm said in a cover letter attached to the 1993-94 audits that it found no material misstatement in the company's financial statements and that the audits fairly represented Silver State's financial position.
Until a few years ago, Piercy Bowler also was the auditing firm for Clark County.
The auditors' findings and the county's decision to not require a regulatory audit, which would have resulted in a more rigorous examination of Silver State's finances, have been called into question after Tuesday's federal indictment accused Silver State of criminal tax fraud.
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