Village administrator: Turnaround was an amazing accomplishment - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

By Diana Dykstra

Posted Aug. 22, 2015 at 4:08 PM

Internal controls is the new buzz word in an era of government transparency. It is a framework of best practices that are standardized by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. It plays an important role in any organization as a practice to prevent fraud and promote transparency.

Potential weaknesses exist in every organization. Weaknesses are inevitable with government boards that consist of elected officials whose terms could run for four years, requiring no official education.

In 2009, the village of Poplar Grove was in a $450,000 deficit. By 2013, elected officials had accomplished the unbelievable: the achievement of an AA- bond rating and an increase in the unreserved fund balance (bank account) of more than eight months’ worth of operations. It was quite the amazing accomplishment.

Not many municipalities can say they have wanted to hire a company to come in and tell them what they might be doing wrong. With the village in such a great financial position, they certainly didn’t need to ask for this type of audit.

The village of Poplar Grove broke the mold.

They hired a firm to conduct an Internal Controls Audit of their policies and procedures. A full review of those practices led to roughly 26 recommendations.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board is an independent organization not funded by any government organization. They basically set the bar for all accountants to use for best practices and standards. The audit reviews what practices are currently being used, and made recommendations on what the best practice is according to government standards and principles.

Even with the news of this report, this special audit creates a road map for officials to use in order to adopt new policies and procedures.

In an era when “trust” and “government” are not allowed to be used in the same sentence, I applaud the officials and employees in the village of Poplar Grove for recognizing the need, taking the lead in transparency and holding themselves accountable to taxpayers. This is how to replace trust in government.

Diana Dykstra is village administrator of Poplar Grove.

Village administrator: Turnaround was an amazing accomplishment - Opinion - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL