Counting the beans

Good stewardship of public funds involves ensuring that every cent of tax money is spent in an approved manner.  The annual budget is a spending plan, the certified annual financial report (CAFR) shows, in great detail, where the money went, and how it got there.

Best practice fiscal policies include robust internal controls and accountability standards to discourage theft and abuse and avoid waste. Back in the bad old days, Goochland fiscal policies were vague at best. Math is hard and numbers are boring, so the supervisors let outside auditors handle the books. As long as the economy was good and enough money  came in to pay the bills, little notice was paid.  Budgetary matters were managed more with magical thinking than sound practices. The investigation of uncashed checks in the utility department led to a change in outside auditors who discovered that the county books were a mess.

Fast forward a few years to today. Thanks to  a massive overhaul of policies and personnel, Goochland County has a firm grasp on its finances. Among the steps taken to achieve this was retention of outside auditors to perform the Certified Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and make recommendations to refine and improve policies and procedures.

The complete contract extension for PBMares is included in the March 6 board packet, available on the county website, beginning on page 60. The amount for the FY2018 CAFR is $86,500. This includes the county, schools, Department of Social Services, and Goochland County Community Services.

PBMares is an accounting and business services company based in the  mid-Atlantic. The company was retained by Goochland several years ago to perform annual audits and recommend improvements to financial procedures to ensure the highest level of compliance with all policies and accounting standards.

To ensure impartial financial review, changing auditing firms is considered a best practice. This year, the county’s audit committee, comprised of representatives from the Board of Supervisors, county and school staff, issued a request for proposals for auditing firms going forward. After careful consideration PBMares RFP was deemed best suited.

PBMares will deploy a new auditing team to Goochland to ensure that new, entirely impartial eyes look at county operations.

County Administrator John Budesky said that the audit committee was sensitive to concerns about retention of PBMares going forward, but it believes that the continuity of past audits will allow for continued success.

In addition to regular audit functions, PBMares will assist with the implementation of the county’s new electronic financial reporting system and, during the estimated 26 month transition period, will test old and new data at no extra charge.

Budesky said that the new financial system represents a “huge change” to the daily work load of the county, but will be well worth it in the end.

County CAFR documents  for  the past six years are available in their entirety on the county website http://goochlandva.us/Archive.aspx?AMID=43. Take a look at them if you want to see how the county manages your tax dollars.