State audit released for Perry County Clerk’s office operations

Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts Allison Ball released the 2024 Perry County Clerk audit report Monday, March 2, putting the clerk’s finances and procedures into the public record. The report is the latest annual review of an office that handles records, titles, vehicle-related transactions, election work and other paperwork Perry County residents use every day.

County clerk audits in Kentucky are required by state law, and the Perry County report is part of that routine oversight. The audit covers the clerk’s receipts, disbursements and excess fees for the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, the basic bookkeeping areas that determine whether money and records are being handled the way state rules require.

The release matters because the clerk’s office sits at the center of local trust. Even small problems in accounting, deposits, reporting or internal controls can ripple into services people rely on when they file documents, renew vehicle paperwork or track public records. A state audit is the main outside check on those systems, and the report gives residents a formal look at whether the office stayed within required standards and whether any follow-up was needed.

The Perry County clerk review also lands against a backdrop of recent county-government scrutiny. In July 2024, Ball released audits for the Perry County Fiscal Court for fiscal years 2021 and 2022. That audit said the court failed to provide correct documentation for several parts of the review and recommended stronger management oversight of financial activities. Perry County Judge Executive Scott Alexander said the county had worked to add internal controls and software changes.

That context makes the clerk audit more than a paperwork exercise. The auditor’s office in Frankfort has also posted prior Perry County Clerk audits for 2022 and 2023, showing the office is reviewed year after year rather than only when a problem surfaces. A 2017 Perry County Clerk press release on the auditor’s website said state law requires annual audits of county clerks and sheriffs, underscoring that the process is built into Kentucky’s system of local oversight.

For Perry County residents, the practical question is whether the 2024 review calls for tighter recordkeeping, stronger fee handling or cleaner internal checks at the clerk’s counter. The audit release keeps those responsibilities in view and adds another check on how one of the county’s most public-facing offices is operating.