For the sixth year in a row, the Brownsville Navigation District, which operates the Port of Brownsville, has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its 2016 comprehensive annual financial report.
For the sixth year in a row, the Brownsville Navigation District, which operates the Port of Brownsville, has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its 2016 comprehensive annual financial report.
The Certificate of Achievement is the nation’s top award for governmental accounting and financial reporting. The award was presented to Stephen Fitzgibbons, the port’s director of finance.
GFOA created the Certificate of Achievement in 1945 as an incentive to local and state governments to exceed the minimum requirements of accepted accounting principals by emphasizing full disclosure and transparency in their annual financial reports. The port’s annual report was audited by the public accounting firm Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC.
Fitzgibbons said he’s “proud to work alongside a team of professionals dedicated to the highest principles of government accounting.”
BND Chairman John Wood said the port’s financial team and BND commissioners are “committed to full financial transparency.”
On Oct. 11 BND commissioners signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with CameronCounty to work together on business expansion opportunities. Wood said the county and the port have always had a cooperative relationship in building the local and regional economy and that formalizing that relationship in an MOU only makes sense.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino called the port “the backbone of our local economy” and its economic output a “critical component for the future of our county and region.”
In May, the port signed the same type of MOU with the Mission Economic Development Corp. to collaborate on international trade opportunities with Mexico and other development projects. Alex Meade, CEO of the Mission EDC, said his city, the port and the Rio GrandeValley “make up one of the most dynamic international trade corridors in Texas and the country.”
The port’s efforts to improve its infrastructure were featured in a recent article in the American Journal of Transportation, which noted that projects such as the deepening of the port’s ship channel are necessary to “keep Brownsville competitive and growing.”
