JACKSON, Miss. ( WJTV ) – The audit for Fiscal Year 2022 was presented to the Jackson City Council during a special meeting on Thursday. Some of the councilmembers were concerned that the city isn’t properly investing taxpayers’ money and that receiving delayed audits puts the city behind the eight ball.

Fidelis Malembeka, chief financial auditor for the City of Jackson, said audits are taking longer than expected across the country.

Councilman Ashby Foote, Ward 1, was frustrated by the fact that the audit for FY22 was presented in mid-August 2024. He said receiving an audit this late makes planning for the upcoming year more difficult.

Malembeka said there was an increase in the city’s General Fund balance from 2021 to 2022. He said the General Fund revenue is driven by sales and property taxes.

Under the General Fund, 7.5% of the fund is represented by the unassigned fund balance, which is like an emergency fund that would be approximately $8.7 million. The city succeeded those numbers in 2022.

“Our fund ending fund balance was approximately $104 million and for general fund itself, in fact, the Unassigned Fund balance was approximately $27 million,” said Malembeka.

Some councilmembers were surprised to find out that the city’s money sitting in the bank currently has a low return on investment.

“The interest rates have changed a lot. So, our average balance might be $90 million over the course of a year in what you’d like to earn as much as possible on that. And in the world where interest rates are now five and a half to 5% or so, we shouldn’t be earning just, you know, 0.4%,” stated Foote.

The $90 million that Foote spoke about is for the current year. Some councilmembers want to make sure certain bank accounts are receiving higher interest rates to receive a higher return on investment moving forward.

“We’ve heard about the opportunities in this report to gain money for us, looking at bank accounts that may not be paying us interest money that the city has,” said Councilman Vernon Hartley, Ward 5.

Foote said according to state statute, the city only gets to rebid on how the money is invested every two years, and it’s coming up soon.

“Rates are a lot higher now than they were two years ago. So, we should be able to earn a couple of million dollars just on interest on this money. There are that are ongoing bank accounts over the course of the next year,” he said.

Foote stressed the importance of taking advantage of higher interest rates to hopefully earn several million dollars in interest to add to the budget.

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