By Alison McFerrin

The Selma Times-Journal

The word audit historically has a negative connotation, but for Marion Military Institute, it came as a positive evaluation.

“We did get an unqualified opinion, which is the best mark you can get,” MMI comptroller Jennifer Barnette said. “So I feel really good about it.”

The audit, performed by the State of Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts, evaluated the year spanning Oct. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2010.

Although several areas were found to be in violation, Barnette said they were relatively minor issues.

“We knew before the findings came out that there were areas that needed to be addressed,” said Barnette, who pointed our that since audit results are delayed, many of their corrective actions were made long before the result was published Friday. “They’ve all been fixed and addressed, but there really wasn’t anything major.”

The findings of violations were: regarding internal control, the school did not maintain subsidiary listing for receivables and receivable were overstated by approximately $200,000; they failed to follow all Pell Grant and Academic Competitiveness Grant Disbursement List regulations; they did not disburse Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants within the required time frame; and they did not submit the Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP) by deadline.

“The improvement that has been made in the school is just enormous,” MMI President Col. David Mollohan said. “From the first audit I saw to the audit I saw this year, there’s been some tremendous improvement.”

MMI has faced numerous changes in the past few years because of the transition from a private institute to the state two-year college system.

“Everybody would like their reports to be absolutely clean … and that doesn’t happen all that often,” Mollohan said. “(But) when I look at next year’s audit during this time period, I’m expecting to see a clean report.”

Mollohan also pointed out that all the findings in violation were purely administrative procedures and policies.