El Paso FOAC selects chair and reviews city finance operations, audit plan and internal audit processes

The Financial Oversight and Audit Committee (FOAC) for the City of El Paso elected Representative Acevedo as its chair and spent much of its meeting receiving briefings on the city’s comptroller, budget and treasury functions, grants administration, and internal audit operations — including a detailed discussion about the committee’s audit-plan process and follow-up procedures.

Robert Cortinez, a city finance presenter, told committee members the session would cover both the Office of the Comptroller and the Office of Management and Budget. “This presentation is really gonna provide you an overview of really 2 different departments that have a key role in the overall financial services function of the city of El Paso,” Cortinez said as he introduced the offices and their roles.

The briefing described department missions, staffing and recent recognitions. Margarita Marin, the city’s deputy CFO and comptroller, summarized the comptroller’s responsibilities and the office’s emphasis on internal controls and public reporting. “We are very heavily regulated … we have guidance that we follow through GASB,” Marin said, later noting the finance offices have produced consecutive, clean external audits. Marin and other presenters said the city has had eight consecutive years with no audit findings.

Grants administration: centralized oversight and scale

Elda Rodriguez Hefner, grants administrator in the comptroller’s office, described the city’s centralized grants function and its workload. “We usually work with anywhere from 15 to 20 federal agencies, 15 to 20 state agencies,” Rodriguez Hefner said. She told FOAC that since Fiscal Year 2016 the centralized program has overseen more than $1.4 billion in awards and has managed more than $1.0 billion in expenditures since FY2017; she also said the…