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Running head: CALIFORNIA ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT 1

CALIFORNIA ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT 1

California Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

Laval Castleberry

Valdosta State University

Public Finance Administration

Dr.J

09/26/2020

California Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

In my review, I prefer to refer to the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the State of California for the year ended in 2018, June 30. The State of California maintains adequate transparency in its accounting and auditing by ensuring their accounts' accurate auditing. They document their Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) every year on June 30 and make it available to the general public for transparency. You may access the link for the CAFR of California through the following link: https://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-ARD/CAFR/cafr18web.pdf.

California completes a yearly CAFR on the said date, and it is then later published into the internet for viewing and analysis by its citizens. The published CAFR is not available on the internet only until the CAFR of the next fiscal year is published, but it is preferably made available for multiple years. It is also a way of ensuring the State's accountability and making it easy for any citizen willing to analyze the CAFR of a given fiscal year to that of another fiscal year.

The CAFR document for the State of California is not far much different from the example documents. However, the CAFR of California does not contain single audit information. The single audit information makes sure the recipient of federal funds complies with the requirements for using the money. The given CAFR for Valdosta, Georgia, is more understandable than that of the State of California. The presence of detailed information and significant attention to details makes the CAFR of the city of Valdosta, Georgia, much easier to understand when analyzing the CAFR of both communities.

The audit concludes that the State did not materially comply with specific requirements for six of the 18 federal programs or clusters of programs (federal programs) MGO audited. Additionally, although MGO concluded that the State materially complied with requirements for the remaining federal programs it audited, various instances of noncompliance relating to those programs were reported. Further, the State continued to experience certain deficiencies in its accounting and administrative practices that affected its internal controls over compliance with federal requirements. Defects in the State's internal control system could adversely affect its ability to administer federal programs according to applicable requirements.

It is a requirement for a quality CAFR to be relevant, making it easier to understand its citizens. However, this might not be when an interested citizen is reading the CAFR of the State of California. Understanding the CAFR of the State of California has not been made a walk in the park. For the average citizen interested in understanding California's CAFR, they have to be conversant with some basic knowledge of audit documents. In my view, I think that someone with less education will have a hard time trying to understand the accomplishments of the CAFR. However, some details are easily understandable by everyone to prevent misleading of the interested citizens of those auditing documents.