Auditor: Vidalia employees deserve ‘pat on the back’ for clean audit
Published 1:07 pm Thursday, May 16, 2024
- Beaux Pilgrim and Patti Reed of Reed Insurance Agency in Vidalia present town officials with a big check for $293,000 as part of a dividend program with the workers compensation insurance that the town is enrolled in through the agency. The check represents a 72 percent return of the insurance premium, Pilgrim said. Pictured from left is Alderman Tommy Probst, Robert Gardner, Rosa Demby, Mayor Buz Craft, Pilgrim, Jon Betts and Reed. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)
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VIDALIA, La. — The Town of Vidalia’s independent auditor from Silas Simmons LLP gave a shining report of the town’s financials and bookkeeping on Tuesday evening.
“It’s kind of an easy delivery tonight, because things are well kept,” Scott Adams, the CPA with Silas Simmons, said during his presentation of the 2022-2023 fiscal year audit.
The audit found no issues with the town’s financials, bookkeeping procedures, reporting, or compliance with state regulations, he said.
“I’ll give Debra Moak (CPA and Municipal Accountant for the Town of Vidalia) a pat on the back and say it’s been nice working with her. She’s good at what she does as is, of course, the rest of the team you all have assembled here. You know, we have to constantly request information, we do a procedure, we have to follow up and we interact with quite a few people around here. All are very helpful.”
To highlight a few things in the report, Adams said total assets at the end of the 2022-2023 audit year stood at $98.4 million, which was up $1.4 million from the prior year.
Total liabilities stood at $16.8 million, which was down $4.6 million from the prior year. This left the net position at $85.4 million, up about $10.5 million from the prior year.
“Obviously, that’s a pretty solid increase from the prior year on your net position,” Adams said. “Program revenues were $19.8 million, general revenues at $29.2 million, operating expenses at $38.5 million, which gets you to that positive change of $10.5 million. Obviously, a good year there in terms of increasing the net position, and that’s across all funds.”
Vidalia Mayor Buz Craft praised the town’s clean audit.
“There’s not a lot of municipalities that get audits like this with zero findings. This has been I think the second or third year in a row that we’ve done it,” he said.