Unfortunately, we could not manage to locate the ACFR for my town, but we
were 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)
