OSA Weekly Update - 2/28/2025

1. Message from Auditor Blaha

2. Released: Financial and Investment Report of Fire Relief Associations

3. County TIF Information Forms Due March 31

4. Avoiding Pitfall: Use of Credit Cards

1. Message from Auditor Blaha

Heads Up: When things get tough—whether it’s changes in Washington or turnover on your own team—don’t forget to get back to the basics.

Here are three things you can do today to help you stay in control of your finances:

  • First, reconcile your bank statements.
  • Second, when approving expenses, really take a moment to double-check the details.
  • Third, record every receipt.

2. Released: Financial and Investment Report of Fire Relief Associations

This week, Auditor Blaha released the Financial and Investment Report of Fire Relief Associations for the year ended 2023. The report summarizes and evaluates the finances, basic benefit structure, and investment performance of Minnesota’s fire relief associations, and includes annual benefit levels, municipal contribution amounts, fire state aid amounts, and rates of return for each relief association.

3. County TIF Information Forms Due March 31

The County TIF Information Form is due from counties by March 31, 2025. The form captures activity that occurred in 2024 including the county's TIF administrative activities, distributions of tax increment, and transfers of TIF enforcement deduction. The information assists the Office of the State Auditor in its oversight of TIF authorities. Instructions on accessing the form in SAFES were emailed to county representatives on January 17, 2025.

If you have any questions, contact us at TIF@osa.state.mn.us.

4. Avoiding Pitfall: Phantom Vendors

One method of fraud involves payments to fictitious companies for goods never delivered or services never provided. To protect against this, public entities need procedures in place to determine whether new vendors that are added to their accounts payable system are legitimate.

The ability to set up new vendors on the accounts payable system should be limited to those individuals with a logical need for this function. When new vendors are added to the system, the vendors should be reviewed by someone outside the accounts payable system. The outside reviewer should verify that the new vendor is legitimate. Finally, the vendor list should be reviewed periodically, and unused vendors should be removed from the system.

This fraud is more likely to occur when a public entity has a large number of vendors. Warning signs of a potential “phantom vendor” include:

  • Sequentially-numbered invoices from the vendor;
  • Invoice amounts just below the amount needing additional approval for payment; and
  • Companies with only P.O. Box addresses, companies lacking taxpayer identification numbers, or vendor identification numbers that match an employee’s social security number.

The full Avoiding Pitfall is available on the OSA website.