The Franklin County Board this week decided that it’s time for someone else to do the county’s auditing.

County audits will now be done for the next three years by the firm of Emling and Hoffman in Du Quoin.

Circuit Clerk Jim Muir told the Benton News he’s ready to move forward and having new auditors is a good move on the part of the county board.

Muir said no audits were done under former Circuit Clerk Nancy Hobbs. He was also informed by state officials that no audit was done in 2012.

Audits for 2013 through 2015 were caught up, but the audit for last year that was done by an independent auditing firm out of Alton failed to find anything productive. Auditors determined that there wasn’t enough information available to render an opinion.

Muir told board members he wants a disclaimer letter that would basically say the 2016 audit could not be finished due to records that were destroyed and that too much information is missing to complete a forensic audit. He says the letter would protect him in the future from anything that might come up from the 2016 audit.