Garden City Audit

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah. January 9, 2014.  Tiffany Wahlberg, the City’s accountant, submitted the audit report to the Council drawing attention to some of the changes that have been made.  Tiffany pointed out that the total net position for the Town as a whole increased by $267,615.  The total unrestricted net position for the Town, as a whole, increased by $54,764.  Total net position for governmental activities increased by $230,464.  Finally, the total net position for business-type activities increased by $37,151.

Tiffany noted that the City had a clean audit and is doing well.  She did make some suggestions as follows: The first concerns the accounts payable area.  The recording of accounts payable has been an issue in prior years, and it was much less of an issue in the current year.  However, she did identify instances of unrecorded payables during the audit.  The Town should continue to monitor these items, especially for the few months following year-end to ensure that invoices paid after year-end are properly recorded as payables if necessary.

The second suggestion is dealing with the Utah Retirement Systems.  The state of Utah requires employers to make an annual formal action in writing adopted by persons authorized to amend the governing laws authorizing employer “pick-up”.  Although the Town did provide documentation that the rates had been approved and signed, Wahlberg was unable to find mention of formal action in the minutes.  She said, “please ensure that a motion has been made for the current year and remember to make a motion in City Council to accept employer “pick-up” when approving the retirement rates.”

The last suggestion is about fund transfers.  Although the Town uses only minimal water, the Town is still required to invoice the general fund at the same rate charged to other customer’s of the utility.  The Town provides services to the Water Enterprise Fund approximately equal to the cost of the water, however, the charges need to be more fully documented in both the Water Enterprise Fund and the General Fund.