The City of Cocoa Finance department presented to Cocoa City Council at the March 22, 2022 City Council meeting the Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Financial Report (ACFR) and Audit Report. These documents which are required to be produced highlighted no audit comments, over $2.4 million spent in grant expenditures, over a million dollars spent in COVID relief to the community, and half a million dollars received from FEMA for Hurricane.
Each year the City of Cocoa is audited by an external agency and this year the report came back with no comments. Comments can be made in areas of internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters, in the management letter, and in the independent accountant's report on investments. Comments in an audit report represent items that are either regulatory or policy violations or represent unacceptably high levels of risk or financial loss. The agency was on hand at the Council meeting to present their findings from the annual audit and Joel Knopp, CPA from MSL CPAs and Advisors stated "I would give my congratulations to city staff for a job well done."
In fiscal year 2021, the City of Cocoa reported $2.4 million in grant expenditures, $1,064,653 in COVID related expenditures to assist the community with items such as rental and mortgage assistance and assistance with utility bills and business recovery, and $564,174 was received from FEMA for expenses related to recovery efforts from Hurricane Irma in 2017. This report shows the City of Cocoa is in a strong financial position.
"I extend the congratulations to my staff for all of their hard work and cooperation along with the other departments [in the City]," said City of Cocoa Finance Director, Rebecca Bowman.
All budget documents and financial reports are available on the City of Cocoa's website at https://www.cocoafl.org/174/Finance.
