April Fools’ Day was the deadline for the city’s annual audit, and it was a no-show again.
In what is getting to be a recurring event the city’s audit – formerly known as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report but now renamed the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report to be politically correct – did not meet the deadline and no one seems to know when it will.
The previous one was nine months late.
Mayor Lenny Curry is an accountant, and it seems somewhat odd that his city can’t produce an audit in timely fashion.
The official reason – which we weren’t given officially because Curry’s Wall of Silence does not allow Eye on Jacksonville through its gates – is that the city’s computer system is out of whack and can’t reliably produce the numbers needed by the outside auditors.
As the auditors put it: “During the audit we found that financial records for most classes of transactions and account balances were not accurately completed on a timely basis. Financial reports were not in place to extract the financial information required and the financial information provide to us required material correcting entries to be made.”
Not our fault, the city said. Bureaucrats blame the Red Chinese virus and the software providers.
Naturally, some doubters doubt that. Who believes politicians these days? They wonder if the numbers have to be massaged before release.
Curry is said to be obsessed with his public image, which is one reason he only allows information to be released through his gatekeeper.
Maybe his pension plan reform isn’t going as advertised? Maybe the impressive debt reduction he claims isn’t that impressive?
Like many cities, local government was a pass-through for some of the trillions of dollars of funny money being expended recklessly by the federal government. The media have reported hundreds of billions of dollars of theft and fraud. Eye is hoping someone in Jacksonville is making some attempt to account for the $167 million local government spends that comes from the federal trough..
With the city taxing and spending at a Democrat pace, Eye is hoping timely and accurate financial statements will be leaked out of City “Haul” to supplement the administration’s rosy press releases.
