A representative of Banks, Finley, and White, the accounting firm charged with conducting Greensboro’s annual financial audit, was at the Tuesday night, Sept. 24 city council meeting to discuss the city’s Fiscal Year 2023 audit.
Ebony O’Brien, an accountant with the firm who has been leading this year’s Greensboro audit, told the council that their results were mostly good. The audit, she said, covered three main aspects of the city’s bookkeeping: the financial statements themselves, the internal controls and oversight of city finances, and compliance with the requirements of the major grant programs in which the city is currently participating.
“We are required to perform in accordance with professional standards,” she said. “Anything that we get from management, we question. We don’t just take it at face value, we ask for support,” in the form of documents, she said. “We also look at grant agreements, compliance requirements, laws, regulations, and any provisions within those grant agreements.”
O’Brien said the firm had issued an unmodified opinion on Greensboro’s 2023 finances, explaining that that was “the cleanest opinion you can get.”
However, she said, the firm identified certain “significant deficiencies” that affected the overall financial picture of the city in 2023.
There were, she said, issues with unbalanced statements in the records of the city’s Utilities Board. “It was caused, basically, by unrecorded bank entries,” O’Brien explained.
The firm also identified “material weaknesses” with regards to the Utilities Board’s recording of its capital assets and bank reconciliation, she said.
O’Brien said those findings appeared in last year’s audit as “significant deficiencies,” and because the same issues cropped up again in the current audit, generally accepted accounting principles dictated that they be upgraded to “material weaknesses,” a more serious finding.
“When you talk about the audit for 2023 and the utility board as far as the finding with their grants…we got dinged, because they are technically under [the city], that is a ding on the City of Greensboro,” said City Clerk Lorrie Cook. “Could that possibly have an affect on any of the other grants? Because they ask for a copy of the audit report as a part of the grant application process.”
“One thing we audit is whether the city is highrisk,” O’Brien said. “You don’t want to get identified as high-risk.”
“So we’re considered high-risk now?” said City Councilmember Ashley Kyser.
O’Brien said that the city’s COVID grants were “already considered highrisk programs,” and as a result “the city is high-risk but now with high-risk program deficiencies.”
“When they’re separate— I mean, the way I understand it is [the Utilities Board] is totally separate from the city of Greensboro. Is there anything they can do as far as that to keep us from getting dinged?” said City Councilmember Pearl Shepherd.
“I understand your concern,” said O’Brien, but said the Utilities Board was still a part of the city’s government and is reported in the audit under the City’s “government activities.”
Kyser made a motion, seconded by Shepherd, to accept the audit. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote.
Councilmembers also voted to accept the city’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which includes an across-the-board raise for city employees, including police officers.
In addition, Cook noted that the city had about $430,000.00 in surplus at the time of the council’s last budget workshop on Sept. 17. Cook said that, when the city had a surplus in the previous year’s budget, the council voted to move about $200,000.00 into the city’s capital improvement fund to fund equipment purchases and other capital expenditures. Councilmember Bobbie Curtis made a motion that the city move $200,000.00 from this year’s budget into next year’s capital improvement fund, seconded by Councilmember KaTerriaeial Lewis. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote.
