Adair County Judge/Executive Ann Melton said that she will turn over all the information uncovered by Spectrum Health Partners LLC and the auditing firm that performed the audits for the fiscal years ending June 2010 and June 2011 for Westlake Regional Hospital to the “proper authorities” in the near future.

Melton said the state Department of Local Government recommended the findings be turned over to authorities after she met with department officials in Frankfort and presented them with the preliminary reports she had been given.

“Nothing will be done until after the audit reports have been completed and signed off on by the auditors,” Melton said. The auditing firm, Lattimore, Black, Morgan and Cain (LBMC) of Nashville, was scheduled to present the completed audits to the Westlake Board of Trustees at its regular monthly meeting held this past Tuesday, December 27.

The judge said the findings she will turn over to the authorities will not include any information from the forensic audit that was also performed by LBMC. The information in that audit is the property of the hospital board’s attorneys, Frost, Brown and Todd of Louisville.

Spectrum Health Partners LLC has been at Westlake since February 1 of this year. The firm was hired by the hospital board to conduct a business assessment of the hospital. However, in the day Spectrum was to begin work, former Westlake CEO Rusty Tungate and his management staff abruptly resigned, so Spectrum has been managing the hospital on an interim basis ever since.

The LBMC auditing firm has been at the hospital since July of this year. The firm was initially hired to conduct the financial audit for the 2011 fiscal year. However, the hospital’s previous auditor, Welch and Company CPAs, had not yet completed the 2010 fiscal year audit, and after some disagreements between the auditor and Spectrum could not be reconciled, LBMC was hired to conduct the audit for the 2010 fiscal year too.

Melton said the “proper authorities” to which the findings will be turned over to will be the Commonwealth Attorney’s office and could also involve other state and/or federal agencies. It will be up to these agencies to determine if any criminal acts have been committed and if they should be prosecuted.