County Receives Clean Audit Report

Tommy Murphy

Sta Writer

During the Troup County Board of Commissioners work session on Thursday, the county received a report on the independent audit of their annual financial report.

State law requires lo – cal governments provide a complete set of financial statements each fiscal year to be audited by licensed certified public accountants.

J. K. Boatwright & Co., P.C. conducted the audit for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2020 and presented the report prior to the annual county department budget hearings on Thursday.

Barry Smith of Boat – wright provided the report and praised Troup Chief Fi – nance Ocer Sonya Conroy

Cont. on page 5

Barry Smith, of J. K. Boatwright & Co., P.C., provided the report on the annual audit.

Continued from Front Page

for the accuracy of the reports they audited, saying

they found no significant

non-compliance.

“It was a good report,” said Smith. “That’s really the highest assurance we can give you."

Smith said the county is in a strong position noting

that over the year Troup saw in increase in their net position of about 1.5 percent. He said that really is the best in- dicator of how a local gov ernment is doing because it includes long-term liabilities, including postemploy- ment benefits.

The County’s total assets exceeded its total liabilities

by $149,675,769 for the fis – cal year reported.

Capital assets for the county increased by about 3 percent, primarily led by gains from the previous spe cial-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) winding down.

Liabilities remained pretty much the same, with no major ones being added, but it was up due to pension funding.

Total ending fund bal- ance of the county's gov ernmental funds dropped to $44,818,743 from the previous year's balance of

$49,726,258, a decrease 9.9 percent.

Smith noted that the county’s general fund is also in excellent shape, advising

the county has about six

months of reserves for bud geted expenditures. At the

end of the fiscal year, the

unassigned fund balance for the general fund was $18,168,886, or about 45.6 percent of general fund expenses.

Overall, the county con tinues to maintain a strong

financial position in a weak

national economy, noted the accountants in the audit report.

The author of this article can be reached via email at [email protected]

net.