City Council Approves 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report by Auditing Firm
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
The Eagle Pass City Council heard a presentation of the 2014 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for fiscal year ended September 30, 2014, at their regular meeting held on Tuesday, April 7, 2015, from Certified Public Accountant Milo Martinez of the independent auditing firm of Martinez, Rosario & Company L.L.P. of San Antonio, Texas.
During the presentation, Martinez stated that his firm was giving the City an unmodified and clean opinion through every operation under the scope of the City of Eagle Pass.
“Before you is the annual report and the numbers on this report are final. There are still some pieces of the entire package that need to be put together for submission. We have completed our audit and are in position to issue our opinion,” said Martinez.
Martinez discussed the details in his report pertaining to the auditing process. “There are multiple opinions because you have different funds that we report on, which are the general fund, special revenue and capital projects funds, and then you have your enterprise funds which are your waterworks, international bridges, and landfill and agency funds,” said Martinez
“Our opinions across the board are unmodified or clean opinions and that’s where you want to be,” said Martinez.
Martinez explained that there were some prior period reinstatements. “What transpires here is there could be reinstatements that occurred because there was an error or that numbers from a previous year needed to be corrected or there could be new standards in reporting. This year we have some of both,” noted Martinez.
Martinez presented the City of Eagle Pass budget to actual information.
“You can see where the numbers start off and then the final numbers and then its compared to the actual results. And now you see the actual auditing results,” said Martinez.
“Your revenues the final amount was budgeted at $12,544,727 and you ended up at $12,929, 035 and that’s a positive. Most of your categories were a positive. At the end, you had a positive variance of $376,000,” said Martinez.
“Your total expenditures for the general fund were budgeted at $16,765,391 and they came out a little bit higher at a negative variance of $141,000. However, at the end of the day your positive variance in your revenues exceeded that so you ended up with an overall positive variance of $234,000, said Martinez.
Martinez noted that funds transferred in from the different enterprise funds were also positively stated.
“When it was all said and done, you came out with a positive change in your funds balance. Those are good results of your budgeting and planning for the year,” said Martinez.
Martinez broke down the Comprehensive Annual Report for City Council. “As part of the audit, we look at all your financial information,” said Martinez.
Martinez reported that the City of Eagle Pass has a positive equity of $25,124,546 and under the business type, which includes the enterprises of the City Water Works and Sewer System, International Bridges, and Waste Management and Landfill have a positive equity of $130,000,000.
Under the Statement of Activity, the profit and loss of the entire city operation, Martinez reported a positive outcome as the governmental activities grew $1,744,749 and the business type grew $4,215,653 for a total of $5,960,402.
“That concludes my presentation and I think that it shows that the City of Eagle Pass is very healthy and the positive growth and the good outcomes from your budget,” said Martinez.
City Council unanimously approved the 2014 City of Eagle Pass Comprehensive Annual Financial Report from Rosario, Martinez & Company LLP and is now pending the City of Eagle Pass 2014 single audit report within the next two or so weeks.
City Council was pleased that the City of Eagle Pass enjoys a healthy financial comprehensive status and a clean opinion from its independent auditing firm of Martinez Rosario & Company LLP.
