VIWMA 2023 Audit Shows Progress, But Work Needed in Accounts Payable, Fixed Asset Recording

The V.I. Waste Management Authority is within sight of catching up on its audits, and the authority’s board of directors heard the results of the utility’s 2023 audit during a presentation from firm Bert Smith and Company Tuesday.

Accountant George Willie presented the findings, noting progress in several areas of the authority’s overall financial health and room for improvement in WMA’s payments to vendors and equipment management.

“And so in your management letter, we’re going to tell you: you got to get your accounts payable under control,” Willie said.

Willie also noted a qualification, or issue, with the authority’s fixed assets.

“Two sets of issues,” he said. “One, when the transfer was made from … Public Works, you got a lot of equipment that you use [which] were never titled to this organization. I’ve raised this matter before, and I know there was an attempt a couple years ago to get it together, but it has not been resolved.”

Consequently, “some of that equipment … is not good anymore. It’s obsolete, but it’s still being carried on your books.”

Further, some equipment the authority received after the 2017 hurricanes wasn’t properly recorded. Public Works Commissioner Derek Gabriel said he thought the problem stemmed from not properly attributing assets to the correct divisions.

“I felt good about that being done because I’ve only been with the Authority since 2022, and in those three years we’ve knocked out six different audits,” interim Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Daryl Griffith told the Source Tuesday night. Griffith said the WMA’s 2024 audit will be finished by the end of this year, “so showing good … improvement in the financial progression of Waste Management.”