PARIS — The town has finally received a financial audit for fiscal year 2011-2012, almost a year late.

In a presentation to selectmen at their meeting Monday, Greg Chabot, the town’s auditor from South Portland-based Runyon Kersteen Ouellette accounting firm, apologized for the delay and assured that the FY 2012-2013 audit would be prepared by October. 

In March, RKO briefly suspended the town’s audit after accounting mistakes from the town office threw its general ledger off balance by approximately $2.1 million. 

Auditors returned to work on the audit about a month after its suspension. 

The audit report Chabot presented to the board Monday outlined many of the same deficiencies noted by Bernard this past winter. 

In particular, the failure to reconcile the town’s general ledger was cited as a “material weakness,” meaning there is a reasonable possibility that a misstatement in the town’s financial records would go unnoticed or not be corrected in a timely basis. 

In March, Bernard reported that the general ledger had not been reconciled correctly since June 30, 2011. 

Chabot’s report highlights the steps the town’s administration has taken to correct mistakes, including reconciling the town’s bank statements to its general ledger monthly, providing monthly expense and revenue summary reports to the board and working on balancing smaller accounts and tax reconciliation.

“You’ve come a long way” Chabot told selectmen. 

The report also notes two other “significant deficiencies” in the town’s accounting practices, but Chabot said there wasn’t much the town could do to correct them. 

One deficiency is that the town office does not have a large enough staff to ensure that different employees handle different parts of the same transaction. 

Although the town office staff is too small to make complete segregation of duties feasible, the town has moved forward with providing additional oversight, including regular reviews of cash deposits made by staff. 

In addition, the town manager and two selectmen now review all invoices, Chabot’s review notes. 

The second deficiency is a lack of internal controls over the preparation of financial statements in accordance with accepted accounting principles, but Chabot told the board this was normal for government entities that use outside accountants to generate financial statements.