Paper 2

I. INTRODUCTION

Founded in 1927, The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission is a bicounty agency serving Prince George's and Montgomery counties in Maryland, located just to the north and east of Washington, DC. The original purpose of the Commission, or M-NCPPC, was to practice "long-range planning and park acquisition and development." Since its inception, however, the Commission's responsibilities have expanded to include administration of Prince George's County's public recreation program (M-NCPPC, n.d.)

A well-respected leader in the field, the Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation provides quality recreation programs, facilities, and services for residents and visitors. The Commission operates and maintains more than 26,000 acres of parkland throughout the county, including land developed to provide parks, picnic areas, athletic fields, historic sites, community centers, and recreation facilities. In an effort to maintain the county's natural beauty, a large percentage of the land has been left undeveloped to serve as buffers and to provide natural open spaces (M-NCPPC, n.d.).

With cooperation and input from diverse communities throughout Prince George's County, the Department operates a comprehensive park and recreation system that offers programs and facilities designed to meet the needs and interests of patrons of all ages. Outdoor festivals, live performances, trips, self-improvement classes, teen and senior activities, summer camps, fitness and sports programs, art and nature programs, and more than 40 miles of hiker/biker/equestrian trails are just a few of the recreational amenities offered (M-NCPPC, n.d.).

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report of the City of The Maryland Park and Planning Commission (MPPC) is for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015 was submitted on December 22, 2015. The responsibility for the accuracy of the data, and the completeness and fairness of the presentation, including all disclosures, rests with MPPC. The CAFR consists of management’s representations concerning the finances of MPPC. Consequently, management assumes full responsibility for the completeness and reliability of all of the information presented in this CAFR. MPPC has established a comprehensive internal control framework that is designed both to protect MPPC’s assets from loss, theft, or misuse and to compile sufficient reliable information for the preparation of MPPC’s financial statements in conformity with GAAP. MCCP’s comprehensive framework of internal controls has been designed to provide reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that these objectives are met. The concept reasonable assurance recognizes that (i) the cost of a control should not exceed the benefits likely to be derived, and (ii) the evaluation of costs and benefits requires business judgment by management (CAFR Reports 2003-2015).

II. CAFR REPORTS

A comprehensive annual financial report serves a number of purposes for the general public, investors and other interested groups. One of the most significant purposes of a comprehensive financial report is that it provides a valuable insight into how city or state officials manage public finances. While the formats and contents can vary, these reports present the financial statements of the governmental entity, as well as important analysis tools like the management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) and the notes to the financial statements. CAFRs are done according to GAAP and Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) regulations (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, n.d.).

CAFRs often present financial information for individual funds (or at least significant funds) as well as government-wide financial statements that show the position of the government as a whole. Governments use modified accrual accounting for their statements, and include reconciliations explaining how they made the switch from cash-basis accounting (typically used throughout the year) to the modified accrual basis they report in (Navigating Government And Nonprofit Financial Statements, 2007).

The CAFR is presented in three sections (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, n.d.):

(i) Introductory section - includes transmittal letter.

(ii) Financial section - includes the independent auditor's report and contains management's discussion and analysis, government-wide financial statements, fund financial statements, notes to the financial statements, required supplementary information, combining financial statements, and schedules.

(iii) Statistical section - includes additional financial, economic, and demographic information.

III. Clearly identify who the actual intended audience/users of a CAFR/ACFR report are outside those the CAFR/ACFR report itself is addressed to

NO SAMPLE for THIS PART. WRITE YOUR OWN.

IV. THE NEED FOR BOTH

The CAFR serves as one of the financial reports that GASB utilizes to accomplish its mission and to provide reliable financial data for users. Additionally, by providing a full disclosure of financial data, the CAFR shows how a government spends tax dollars. A CAFR could not be and should not be replaced by a Citizen-Centric Report. A CAFR is still a very much needed document to provide in-depth financial data for a government and helps to fulfill the missions of GASB in improving government reporting (Governmental Accounting Standards Series, April, 1994).

While the Citizen-Centric Report's four page layout lends itself to user friendliness it could never contain all the vital information of a CAFR report that is almost always over a hundred pages in length. Thus, the Citizen-Centric Report should be considered a complement to the CAFR, by taking the information included within a CAFR and repurposing it so that it may serve a much broader audience. The inclusion of a link within the Citizen-Centric Report to the CAFR may potentially increase the readership of the CAFR as well by first sparking an interest in citizens of the city's finances and then giving the more interested citizens the opportunity to view a CAFR for complete financial data. The Citizen-Centric Report does wonders at reducing and simplifying the content of a CAFR, the Citizen-Centric Report's aim is not to replace the CAFR but rather to serve as a complement; spreading the information contained within a CAFR to a broader audience (Citizen-Centric Reports, n.d.).

References

About M-NCPPC. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2016, from http://www.mncppc.org/About_MNCPPC.

html

CAFR Reports 2003-2015. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2016, from

http://www.mncppc.org/Our_Departments/Central_Administrative_Services/Finance/CA

FR/CAFR2015.html

Citizen-Centric Reporting (CCR). (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2016, from

https://www.agacgfm.org/Resources/Performance-Accountability/CCR.aspx

Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from

http://www.ofm.wa.gov/cafr/

Governmental Accounting Standards Series (April, 1994). Retrieved February, 27, 2016, from

http://www.gasb.org/cs/BlobServer?

blobkey=id&blobnocache=true&blobwhere=1175824063642&blobheader=application/p

df&blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs

Navigating Government And Nonprofit Financial Statements | Investopedia. (2007). Retrieved

February 27, 2016, from

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/07/government_nonprofit_statements.asp