Unfortunately, we couldn't manage to locate the ACFR for my town, but we
was able to find the ACFR for a town close to me, Springfield MA.
Compared to private, there are a lot of clear differences with the public
reports. This makes sense. The town of Springfield has a duty to report on the
status of roads and other such public affairs that they need to take care of
while a company like Netflix needs only report on their business. As well,
private companies need to report their profits, while a governmental entity
generally does not have a 'profit' to report. Instead, they report on how they
have benefitted the community. While private companies need to be able to
explain themselves to their stakeholders and the government, the government
needs to be able to explain itself to the public.
Another thing with government is there are a lot of specific protocols that
must be followed. We work for a town and are looking to hire a company to
do something like pave a road, it has to go out to bid. It has to be advertised
in specific ways for a specific amount of time and then conducted in a
specific way. We follow the MCPPO protocols for bidding. And even after
they are hired, certain checks and balances are in place. One example is
certified payroll, we have to look at the construction payroll to be sure all
workers are being paid the fair (state/federal whichever is higher) wages.
Netflix on the other hand could just hire whoever.
The differences that we see make sense, because they are reporting to
different people. Private companies need to prove to stakeholders that they
are making them money and show the government that they are doing it in a
legal fashion. The government needs to prove to the public that they are
using our tax dollars to better our communities.
Inline XBRL Viewer (sec.gov)
Microsoft Word - {8DB27617-C3B6-4C58-A5EF-4A3A62844CF7}
(springfield-ma.gov)
