The City of Vicksburg finished the 2012 fiscal year with a $15.13 million fund balance, or surplus, according to an audit report presented to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Booker T. Camper Jr., the accountant hired by the city to do the audit, which covers the city’s financial activity from Oct. 1 to Sept, 30, 2012, presented it Monday at a meeting of the board.

“Financially, we believe the City of Vicksburg is strong,” Camper told the board. Besides the surplus, he said, the value of the city’s assets and its total net worth have increased in value over prior fiscal years.

“The only recommendation I would like to say is the director of accounting should report to management in a planning meeting on a periodic basis throughout the month,” he said.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said Accounting Director Doug Whittington meets with him and other city division heads every Tuesday.

“That audit report makes me feel good about going into the new year,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “To get a report that says we’re going up instead of down, is great. We know what we have to do. From here, it’s about all of us.”

“The talk has been about finance from Day 1,” South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said. “We need to be conservative. I realize that’s a bad word to some people, but we have to be conservative with the taxpayers’ money.”

The 2012 audit was the fourth audit performed by Camper in the past two years. Camper was hired by the city in 2012 to bring the backlog of audits going back to 2009 current and in compliance with state law.

He completed the 2009 and 2010 audits in 2012 and the 2011 and 2012 audits this year. He and city Accounting Director Doug Whittington said the 2013 audit is expected by the end of April.

The lack of current audits prevented city officials from applying for certain state and federal grants, and caused Moody’s Investment Services, a New York-based provider of credit ratings and risk analysis, to pull the city’s A-1 rating.

Moody’s cited insufficient financial information on the city’s creditworthiness because Vicksburg did not have completed 2008, 2009 and 2010 audits as the reason for pulling the ratings.

“We are now in compliance with the audits,” Whittington said.

“This is great for the city. We have, I think, missed out on a couple of grant opportunities because of this noncompliance on audits,” he said. “That is over with.

“We are free and clear to apply for any and all grants,” he said. “Also, it’s very important to mention (that) with this audit compliance, we are set and ready. Whenever the board chooses, we’re ready to get that bond rating.”

Flaggs has said several times since taking office he planned to get the city’s bond rating restored in January. Monday, however, he indicated the board may wait a bit longer.

“Even though I think we’re ready, I’m told that you do not want to apply unless you are ready to borrow money,” he said. “You don’t want to spend $1,000 getting a rating when you have no interest in borrowing.”

He said he wants to look at restructuring the city’s debt before moving to restore the bond rating. He also wanted to wait until a committee on capital improvements presents its priority list. Flaggs earlier this month had department heads prepare recommendations for capital improvements in the city.