The Daily Press had a story recently where the Town of Apple Valley’s Finance Department — lead by former Flint, MI Finance Director Marc Puckett — received a financial reporting award from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA).
Mr. Puckett has a long history with this award.
According to the The Flint Journal, Puckett also won the award in 1998 while at the City of Flint (for the fifth year in a row), one year before an independent audit of Flint’s finances found the following:
- Flint taxpayers had to pay over 1.1 million dollars to the City’s pension fund after it had not been properly funded for years.
- Under Marc Puckett as retirement board secretary, the retirement system accounts had not been subject to a stand-alone audit.
- From 1996 to Puckett’s exit, the City incorrectly misdirected some 6 million dollas in property tax payments.
- From 1996, to Puckett’s exit, Puckett as Flint Finance Director failed to pay millions in industry facility and commercial facility taxes to the State Government. A previous audit done in 1996 determined that the city had not paid 12 million dollars in taxes for the four previous years, and the payment was later made.
- The city violated state law by spending beyond the budget adopted by the City Council in certain areas.
- A lack of employees in the City Finance and Budget department resulted in transactions not being recorded on the city’s general ledger in a timely way, making it impossible to compare the city budget to its actual spending on a monthly or quarterly basis.
You can read more about the Flint-Apple Valley connection here.
It’s such a prestigious award that even the City of Bell received it multiple times in the years before its City Council and City Manager went to jail for multiple corruption related charges.