Robeson County gets ‘clean’ audit for Fiscal Year 2022-2023

LUMBERTON – Robeson County received a clean audit for Fiscal Year 2022-2023 from the accounting firm W Greene PLLC.

The firm, headed up by certified accountant Wade Greene, has offices in Whiteville and Carolina Beach.

Greene made the presentation on the county’s financial statements during Monday’s regular monthly meeting of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners.

Auditing is integral to a quality management system, ensuring that a company commitment is met and maintained.

As it has been said, auditing is meant to keep everyone honest.

Greene wasted no time when presenting the audit, moving quickly from one item in the county’s financial statement to another with little verbiage.

He got to the point.

Though Greene asked for questions along the way, there were none from the members of the county board.

The county administered $24 million in federal and state financial assistance during 2023, Greene reported.

In terms of compliance testing on federal and state awards, the firm found no instances of noncompliance and no deficiencies in internal control over compliance.

As for financial highlights, Greene said, assets and deferred outflows of resources exceeded liabilities and deferred inflows of resources by a little more than $73 million.

“Your total net position – or net income, if you will – increased by $14.2 million,” he said in his address before the board.

In the general fund, revenues were determined to be $160.6 million and expenditures totaled $153.8 million. Revenues over expenditures came to $6.78 million, according to Greene.

“As you can see,” he pointed out, “the rate has been increasing over the past four years.”

As for the fund balance available in the general fund, Greene said, “This is cash in the bank after you’ve paid your bills. At (Fiscal) Year end, this was $66.8 million.”

That compares to $54.8 million a year ago.

“You saved about $12 million from the prior year,” he noted. “As you can see, it’s steadily going up the last four years.

“The next one – fund balance available – that’s a percentage of expenditures,” he added. “You have 43.43% at year end. You went 39.97% last year, steadily increasing the last four years. So, you’ve got almost a five-month cash on hand at year end. For a county, that 25(%) to 45(%) is about par with the rest of the state.”

The general fund, he said, is in good shape. Steadily increasing, too.

Revenues from the water fund were calculated at $23.7 million, while expenses came in at $19.8 million. He said revenues over expenditures were $3.9 million.

“You see, steadily increasing over the last four years for that,” said Greene.

When it came to fund balance available in the county’s water fund, the firm determined that Robeson County had $16.7 million that compares to last year’s $12.6 million. “As you can see, you have over $4 million from the prior year,” he said, “and you’ve been increasing it the last four years.”

The county showed 84.74% in the fund balance available as a percentage of expenditures in the water fund. In the 2021-22 Fiscal Year, it was determined to be 89.81%.

“So, basically you’ve got a nine- or 10-month (reserve) of cash in the water fund,” Greene reported. “It’s in great shape.”

At that time, he moved on to the solid waste fund. Revenues checked in at $9.9 million compared to expenditures, which was $7.9 million.

“Revenues over expenditures – almost $2 million,” he said. “That has been steadily increasing, too, over the last four years.”

Fund balance available in the solid waste fund was calculated to be $12.3 million. It was $10.5 million last year, said Greene.

“It has been steadily increasing,” he noted again.

In the area of fund balance available as a percentage of expenditures, Greene said, the solid waste fund showed 155.60%. It came to 140% last year.

“You’ve got almost a year and a half of cash on hand in the solid waste fund,” he continued. “So, it’s in excellent shape.”

Other aspects of the county audit included:

– $92.3 million in the governmental cash fund at year end;

– $31.2 million in the enterprise-type cash fund;

– $130.7 million in long-term debt in the governmental funds;

– $26.5 million in the long-term debt in the business-type funds. “One reason your debt really didn’t increase that much,” he said, “is your elderly retirement went up $24.5 million …”

The tax rate remained at 77 cents per 100.

The tax collection rate was said to be 94.2%.

“You’ve got a good collection rate,” he said. “You’re doing a good job.”

On behalf of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners, County Manager Kellie Blue commended Greene because she said “there was a time where we were getting nasty letters (from the regulating group) because our fund balance was not on par. We weren’t really always operating as a business, and we had gotten some dings from them …

“We have some solid waste expansion that we’re going to have to do,” she said. “We have some water tanks that we’re going to have to build that’s going to cost like $30 million. So now we have sufficient balances, and we’re on the way for being able to issue that debt.

“It has been hard decisions,” Blue said, “but I appreciate you allowing us to operate this county like a business.”

Commissioner Wixie Stephens then quipped, “That could be because of the four women on board the last four years. That could be the reason because you have four women on board.”

Laughter ensued.