The International Civil Rights Museum’s numbers have just been crunched. Problem is the report won’t be ready until mid-late June, a little late in Greensboro’s budget season.
Mayor Robbie Perkins says he needs to see three years’ worth of numbers before he’ll fully support the museum’s request for $1.5 million over three years but Sit-In Movement Inc. chair and former Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston says the numbers are there for the viewing:
Perkins was adamant Friday when told of the time crunch, saying city officials couldn’t begin considering the $500,000 request until the Sit-in Movement’s audits are submitted for review.
Alston said that if the audit came late, perhaps the council could consider un-audited financial reports as the basis for approving a museum grant that would be contingent on submitting the full-blown audits soon thereafter.
Many nonprofits, including the Greensboro Children’s Museum and the Greensboro Science Center, do independent audits each year to assure donors of efficiency and to guide managers in making sound financial decisions.
The civil rights museum’s functions have been audited annually under requirements of the tax-credit financing, just not the Sit-in Movement, said John Swaine, the museum’s chief financial officer.
Problem is there appears to be a lot of creative accounting going on considering the fact that you’ve got a lot of LLCs working under the same roof with a nonprofit in order to take advantage of tax-credit financing.
As for busing school kids in from all 100 counties — with Gboro paying for it —I’m having trouble seeing how that help the museum’s bottom line.
