New accounting standards mean new fees for Park County

Some new accounting standards are going to cost Park County an extra $2,500 this year.

The county’s auditors from CliftonLarsonAllen plan to charge $39,632 to review the county’s financials for the past fiscal year — $2,500 more than expected.

CliftonLarsonAllen’s extra charge is to meet new accounting standards that require more detailed reports about the retirement plans the county uses.

In the past, auditors had been able to simply say a government entity (like the county) was a part of a pension fund (like Wyoming Retirement System), then refer readers to the pension fund for more details. However, under new requirements from the national Governmental Accounting Standards Board, auditors must now calculate a government entity’s share of their retirement system’s unfunded liabilities and put them in the audit.

It’s the second straight year of extra costs. CliftonLarsonAllen charged the county an additional $5,000 last year to complete some extra bookkeeping work; the county plans to do that work in-house this year.

As for how the audit of the July 2014-June 2015 fiscal year is progressing, “We’re a lot further ahead (than last year), so it sounds like it should go pretty smooth,” Park County Treasurer Barb Poley said at the commission’s Oct. 6 meeting.

This is the last year of CliftonLarsonAllen’s three-year auditing contract with the county, meaning the county will need to go back through the bidding process to choose an auditor next year.

“Yahoo,” said a sarcastic Park County Commissioner Loren Grosskopf.

~By CJ Baker

by CJ Baker, Park County, Park County Commission