Texas Border Business
By Amanda Sotelo
The South Texas College Finance and Business offices bring home another national award for their transparency and fiscal responsibility when it comes to its annual financial reporting.
Most recently, for the second consecutive year, the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada has awarded STC with Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting for its Popular Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2021.
“Our finance and business teams do a remarkable job in keeping with our fiscal responsibilities and these awards confirm that,” said STC President Ricardo J. Solis, Ph.D. “The STC Board of Trustees and Administration congratulate them for this recognition and for the work and commitment that happens to make an award like this possible. It isn’t easy, but they sure do make it look like it is.”
The Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting is a prestigious national award recognizing accordance with the highest standards for preparation of state and local government popular reports and is valid for one year.
“This is an honor and truly shows the result of years of hard work from our business office staff and so many others,” said Katarina Bugariu, STC associate comptroller. “This acknowledges our work and represents a big thank you for our teams’ tireless efforts and commitment to fiscal responsibility.”
To receive an Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Annual Financial Reporting, a government entity must publish its report and contents must conform to program standards of creativity, presentation, understandability and reader appeal, in addition to receiving a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its annual comprehensive financial report, which the college has received for 19 consecutive years.
Bugariu said STC’s Popular Annual Financial Report shows some of the financial highlights extracted from the college’s financial report with assets totaling $699 million and is a 20-page version of the college’s annual comprehensive report which is 200 pages long.
She added that the Popular Annual Financial Report is created with the community in mind for easy accessibility, readability and understanding for those who do not have an accounting or financial background.
“A third of our funding comes from taxpayers, so our responsibility, with the support of our President Dr. Solis, the Board of Trustees, our Comptroller Myriam Lopez and our Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services Mary Elizondo, is to create a report that simplifies complex data and includes more graphs and graphics,” said Bugariu. “This summarized version of our annual comprehensive financial report allows us to showcase our college’s financial stability, financial analysis and annual outcomes, and reach a wider audience.”
Bugariu said the department is already working on publishing and submitting the 2022 STC Popular Annual Financial Report.
To read STC’s Popular Financial Report, visit https://finance.southtexascollege.edu/businessoffice/pafr.html.
