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The rash of money-management problems in Beaufort County government -- some of them serious enough to warrant criminal investigation -- has demonstrated how disruptive and costly accounting problems can be and the extent to which they can undermine public confidence.
Granted, the county's accounting chores are exponentially more complicated than a municipality's because of its role as tax collector for the municipalities and school district and because its system includes a mix of county staff and elected officials. Nonetheless, any government that handles the people's money should strive to provide accountability and transparency. So the city of Beaufort is to be commended for steps it has taken to improve and organize its financial reporting.
The list of those who deserve credit includes city manager Scott Dadson, Mayor Billy Keyserling and comptroller Mack Cook, but doesn't end there.
Among the strides is adopting Certified Annual Financial Report auditing standards and submitting those standards for review and possible certification by a panel of peers at the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.
The financial data generated by this process includes management explanations, statistics about expenses and income, and analyses and projections, Keyserling wrote in a recent column in The Beaufort Gazette. Such information is important in every season, but it is particularly vital in lean times such as these, when the ability to track and predict financial position on a daily basis can have a real and immediate impact on public services.
The city also has adopted a "Management Assurance Program," in which a third party conducts ongoing reviews of the city's financial records, hunting for irregularities, mistakes or misuse of public dollars.
Perhaps as important as tools to measure the city's financial health in real time is the city's ability to "show its work" to the public. An online financial dashboard provides monthly updates on a variety of financial and public-service measures at www.cityofbeaufort.org.
Beaufort is not the only Beaufort County government entity -- or even the first -- to adopt many of these practices. The Beaufort County School District has long used the standards, and the Town of Hilton Head Island's books have been certified by the Government Finance Officers Association for 18 consecutive years, says town manager Steve Riley.
The woman largely credited as the architect of Hilton Head's financial system, Shirley Freeman, was hired as the town of Bluffton's assistant town manager of finance and administration in late 2006, after complaints about sloppy accounting and lax financial oversight there. Earlier this month, the town received the association's certificate for excellence in financial reporting.
Here is more good news: Beaufort County began submitting its annual reports to the association last year. Though the organization did not certify its books, the county has implemented its recommendations and will try again for certification this year, says David Starkey, the county's chief financial officer.
Of course, participation in the Government Finance Officers Association program cannot entirely indemnify governments against mistakes or fraud, but it at least marks an honest and proactive effort to make such problems less likely. So even if some in Beaufort, Bluffton and Hilton Head don't like the way every nickel of their tax dollars are spent by municipal government, at least they can rest assured those governments are keeping close tabs on those nickels.
That makes for greater efficiency, better bond ratings and higher public confidence in government institutions.
