Council awards audit contract

Published 8:19 pm Monday, February 18, 2013

By MIKE VOSS
Washington Daily News

During its meeting last week, Washington’s Council awarded a $33,000 contract to Martin Starnes and Associates to perform the audit on the city’s books for fiscal year 2012-2013.
In 2011, the city’s Financial Department sought bids for an independent to perform the 2010-2011 fiscal year audit, with Martin Starnes and Associates awarded that contract. The bid request stated the city intended to continue the relationship with the selected auditor for five years on the basis of an annual negotiation after completion of the first year’s audit.
An audit looks at the city’s fiscal health and it financial practices.
Washington’s financial statements for fiscal year 2011-2012 received an unqualified opinion, the best opinion that can be given in an independent audit.
Overall, the city ended the 2011-2012 fiscal year, which ended June 30, in the black, according to the audit.
That audit, conducted by Martin Starnes and Associates, was presented by Crystal Waddell during the City Council’s first meeting in December 2012. The audit concluded there were no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in the city’s internal controls related to finances.
In other business, the council awarded a $92,261.20 five-year contract to Eastern Aviation Fuels to provide fuel for planes fueling at the city-owned Warren Field Airport.
The city will pay $3.25795 a gallon for Jet A fuel and $4.13735 a gallon for AV Gas 100LL. A city document indicates the city will purchase about 8,000 gallons of Jet A fuel a year at a cost of $26,063.60 and about 16,000 gallons of AV Gas 100LL at $66,197.60, for a total of $92,261.20.
The contract runs from Feb. 28 to March 1, 2018.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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