Camille Broadway
An external review of Gainesville Regional Utilities’ (GRU) financial records for fiscal year 2022 found no significant problems with the municipal utility’s financial statements.
The audit by independent firm Baker Tilly examined key transactions, as well as the areas in GRU’s financial reports that contain a significant number of estimates and the utility’s implementation of new accounting standards.
Bethany Ryers, a partner at Baker Tilly, presented the findings to a Wednesday audit committee meeting, which voted unanimously to accept the report and the audited financial statements and forward them to the full Gainesville City Commission.
Ryers said GRU’s financial documents had received an unmodified opinion from the auditing firm – which means that the financial statements are clean and free of serious misstatements and follow accepted accounting principles.
Ryers also said the audit firm also found no material weaknesses or significant problems with internal financial controls in the course of reviewing GRU’s statements.
An external audit is conducted regularly on GRU financial statements and is not related to the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee (JLAC) operational audit of the utility, which focused in part on GRU’s debt and the amount of the utility’s revenues that are transferred to the city’s general government operations.
That JLAC audit has led the local Florida Legislature delegation to propose a bill that would take control of GRU away from the city and put it in control of an appointed five-person board.
Mayor Harvey Ward, who chairs the three-person audit committee, said, “I want to commend our utility’s finance and staff for being able to receive this unqualified audit… It’s been a challenging year for everybody across the organization, and I appreciate you all being a part of this good work going forward.”
Ward added as he adjourned the 25-minute meeting, which had no other items on its agenda: “I do hope we can have more audit meetings just like this one for the next several years. This my favorite audit meeting ever.”
You can be bankrupt, completely upside does, or owe $1.8 billion and obtain a clean audit opinion. All that means is the books show the true picture, nothing more. Ward of course had nothing to do with it. Claudia is the fin & acct mgr.
GRU’s ability to produce financial statements hasn’t been a problem and was not a concern of the JLAC committee. It’s the City’s finance department that has had major problems, couldn’t put out audited financials and couldn’t even balance their check book. As a matter of fact, GRU’s finance people had to go over to the City side to help them with theirs because the City no longer had anyone on staff who was qualified to put our a financial statement. Before Ward breaks out the champagne let’s set what the City’s audited financials look like this year.
Let get this straight, it’s the City Manager job to approve or disapprove expenditures and do a budget. Before Poe got in office; everyone had to do a budget to qualify to run for office or get into office. No one on the Commission can do a city budget. They hirer someone to do it. Talk about duplicate services? Don’t blame the Finance Board; because the down fall started; when Mayor Poe and his buddies took over the broad by joining it.
“An external review of Gainesville Regional Utilities’ (GRU) financial records for fiscal year 2022 found no significant problems with the municipal utility’s financial statements.”
That means there were no errors in procedure. It doesn’t evaluate the rationale, integrity or quality of decisions.
Right, GRU financial statements have never been an issue. It’s really a matter of how to hide what the city thieves have misused through self-serving trickery!
FH says “Receive this Unqualified Audit” . Hmmm. FH Chairs the audit committee. Good Grief. Whut?
GRU has a higher credit rating than Florida power or Duke energy and the right wingers want to sell GRU. Makes no sense.