The following summarizes various government engagements.
Agreed Upon Procedures - Verification procedures on financial information in government bond Official Statement. As part of the enhancement of information provided to investors considering purchasing these municipal bonds, Bates, Carter & Co., LLP was engaged by the government issuing the bonds to perform certain Agreed Upon verification Procedures on amounts contained in the Official offering Statement. Bates, Carter & Co. has done this on numerous occasions for several different clients.
Verification Procedures on "Payments in Lieu of Taxes" (Pilot). The County has offered incentives in the form of reduced property taxes to businesses to persuade them to locate in the County. Our procedures were to verify that the reduced amounts were properly calculated and then collected from those businesses. Bates, Carter & Co., LLP has done this on numerous occasions for several different clients.
Accounting assistance to the Clerk of Court. The County engaged Bates, Carter & Co., LLP to assist in the transition from a manual accounting system to an automated system. We met with the client and software vendor to discuss and formulate the system requirements. Then we assisted in the gathering information on initial balances of liabilities such as restitution owed to plaintiffs.
Prepared future cash flow projections for the Airport Authority. The County engaged Bates, Carter & Co., LLP to prepare projections of future cash flows based on assumptions provided by the airport operations manager in order to assess the likely subsidies the County would have to make to sustain the Airport Authority over a period of a number of years.
Assessed the amount of loss from fraud. The County engaged Bates, Carter & Co., LLP to review transactions related to various areas to determine the amount of loss sustained from an employee fraud. The findings were used in court proceedings to determine the amount of restitution due to the County from the defendant as well as to provide evidence for the court proceedings. Bates, Carter & Co. has done this on numerous occasions for several different clients.
Estimated Arbitrage liability for the Water Authority. The Authority engaged Bates, Carter & Co., LLP to prepare a calculation to determine whether or not a liability existed under the arbitrage provisions related to municipal bonds.
Assisted County in preparing statistical tables for a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR). This CAFR was submitted to the Government Finance Officers Association and was awarded the "Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting".
Reviewed budget documents prepared by the County in anticipation of submission to the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for "Distinguished Budget Presentation" award.
Provided training on QuickBooks accounting software to a City Clerk. This was designed to assist the City in making the transition from manual accounting records to an automated system. Also provided similar QuickBooks training to an elected official of a county court.
Assisted County Manager with interviews of candidates for Finance Director position. The County Manager was able to rely upon input from Bates, Carter & Co., LLP about accounting abilities demonstrated by various candidates in making his assessment of those candidates prior to hiring.
