The Office of the Auditor General of Alberta released its February 2014 Report to the Legislative Assembly this week. The report contained findings and recommendations for post-secondary institutions and highlights observations on financial statement preparation.

"Portage College scored very well on accuracy and timeliness of preparation of consolidated financial statements, two of three key indicators reported" said Dale Mountain, Chief Financial Officer.

The College will need to address one outstanding area, stemming from a repeated recommendation to improve accuracy of bookstore inventory. College Management has implemented improvements to inventory management in the bookstore since the recommendation was first made in 2010, but recognizes there is still some work to be done to fully implement the recommendation.

"Our position is that the financial risk is very low, but we will address the remaining gaps in our process," Mountain said. "We are very close to sorting out this issue, and we don't see it being a problem into the future."

During the 2013 fiscal year, Portage College was focused on preparing a new set of financial statements under the Canadian Public Sector Accounting Standards. This was a significant change from the former Generally Accepted Accounting Standards (GAAP) and required significant planning, resourcing and execution to secure an unqualified opinion from the Auditor General.

"This is the first time post-secondary institutions needed to comply with this new set of standards and it was a massive undertaking, especially for a college with limited staffing resources," Mountain said. "Consequently, we decided not to prioritize the issue stemming from the accuracy of bookstore inventory due to our focus on compliance with the new standards."

Our June 30, 2013 audit identified no new recommendations by the Office of the Auditor General under the new accounting standards.

"The fact that we had no new recommendations is a reflection of our commitment to improving financial reporting and our internal control structure," said Ray Danyluk Chair of the Board of Governors at Portage College. "We have an excellent relationship with the Office of the Auditor General of Alberta and thank them for their observations and repeated recommendations."