City audit shows a surplus was achieved in 2021

One sector of the city council meeting that ended pretty well for the city was the audit report.

That was done by Virtus Group, which performs audits for organizations all across Saskatchewan.

They took the expenses and revenues for the city from the start of January to the end of December for Estevan and did their best to make heads and tails of it.

Virtus Group's Sheila Filion had some good news for the city - they had come out with a hefty surplus.

"During the year, for the statement of operations, revenues and expenses were very stable, other than your capital funding was lower, which was recognized as revenue during the year. So at the end of the year, there was an overall surplus of $2.98 million"

While the audit is available as part of the council meeting agenda, it's a fairly thick document with a whole lot of numbers.

Filion says they're looking at streamlining it to make a clearer picture that's still accurate.

"From an audit perspective, subject to councils approval to the subject draft statements, we do wish to issue a cleaner, clear audit report which states that the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects."

Overall, Filion says that the experience of working with the city to produce the audit went well, especially so for the first time.

"In closing, I'd like to give a big thank you to the management team. Of course with a new auditor, we ask new questions and ask for a lot of information and we really appreciate your time and effort in terms of letting us get to know you a little bit better and to release the audit in a timely fashion. Thank you."