The Florala Utilities Board authorized an independent audit Monday after staff found “a few discrepancies” following the termination of its longtime manager, Lynn Hughes, last week.

Board Chairman Marvin Williford said an investigation into the board’s accounting practices will be launched in the coming days.

“Without going into too much detail, we found a few discrepancies that we’re not sure about at this point,” Williford said. “We have to have an investigation to get things back in order.”

Williford later said “several things (were found) that we don’t understand that we need to investigate.”

Board members agreed that with the approach of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1, the budgeting process should begin now; however, with “all that’s been going on, ” board member Robert Williamson suggested waiting until the results of the audit were completed before approving a budget.

“There’s really not enough information here to put together an accurate budget,” said Williamson, who also serves as Florala’s mayor. “We’ve got a lot to figure out before then.”

And board members agreed, authorizing Williford to contact “whatever agency, auditor or otherwise” to perform the utility board funds audit.

“I’ve got a company in mind,” he said. “It won’t cost us anything. They can come and go then everyone knows what we have and what we don’t have.”

In other business, the board approved the minutes of last week’s special called meeting, but not the Aug. 28 meeting. After stating the tape recorder containing the minutes was missing, Williford requested a recorded copy of the meeting’s minutes from The Florala News.