Cameron County receives clean audit, grows fund balance to $50 million

Cameron County this week announced the completion of its annual comprehensive financial report, a clean external audit of operations in 2024, including that the county’s fund balance has grown to $50 million.

“Overall, I just want to convey to the commission that all the accounting is orderly and in place. The county auditor’s office is doing a good job for you,” Ben Pena of the auditing firm Burton, McCumber, Longoria LLP told Commissioners Court on Tuesday, noting that the county’s fund balance has increased from $24 million in 2022 to $37 million in 2023 and $50 million in 2024.

County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. then asked Pena to repeat the observation.

“It is a very healthy fund balance, so kudos to the county for being so fiscally responsible. Last year was $37 million, 139 days,” Pena said

“That’s a good thing,” Treviño asked.

“That’s a very good thing, congratulations,” Pena responded, saying a fund balance of $50 million in 2024 represents 166 days of reserves in the event of an emergency.

“I don’t think people realize how an increase in the fund balance and the savings for our general operations in the event of an emergency or a need, how critical this is. It shows the county is a good steward of the resources that we are tasked with being in charge of. I hope that this will continue for a long, long time going forward,” Treviño said.

Pena then referred to to the audit summary.

“This summary talks about your opinions, the structure of the financial statements, the report on internal controls over financial reporting, which we look at your internal controls. Although we don’t express an opinion on internal controls, no auditor would, we did not find any instances of non-compliance. … All looks good. You want to see no’s all the way down the column, and that’s what you have,” he said.

Pena said Burton McCumber audited three federal funds, the American Rescue Fund Act, a COVID-era federal rescue fund, which was required and totaled $6.6 million; the Homeland Security Grant program totaling $2.6 million, and Community Development Block Grants of $590,000.

“Total federal expenditures that we audited was about $10 million out of the $24 million in federal expenditures. That was about a 40% coverage. We did not have any findings, any issues with respect to non-compliance. … It was a clean opinion as well,” he said.

“Everybody had a hand in putting this together,” Treviño said. “I’ll give a shout-out to our treasurer. We appreciate the effort. We know that sometimes these things can be quite laborious. There’s a lot of detail, work, there’s a lot of paperwork to be done.”

The Government Finance Officers Association awarded Cameron County a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its 2023 audit and the county expects to receive the award again in 2024, County Auditor Lorena Hernandez said at the beginning of the presentation.

“The results of this financial report and audit confirm the Commissioners Court’s unwavering commitment to fiscal integrity and operational excellence,” Treviño stated. “As an organization, we are proud of operating in such a manner, which fosters trust between local government and our constituents.”

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