May 7, 2007

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) corrects year-end financial statement for Joining Hearts & Hands

Accounting error results in restatement of campaign’s total gifts and pledges to $26.2 million from $27.5 million as of December 31, 2006

LOUISVILLE, May 9 – The General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) announced today that two accounting errors, discovered in the process of preparing the first quarter 2007 financial report for a meeting of the Joining Hearts & Hands steering committee, has led to the release of a new fundraising total for the $40 million denominational campaign. Two financial reports for the campaign were affected: year-end 2006 and the oral report given to the General Assembly Council in March.

According to Joey Bailey, Deputy Executive Director for Shared Services, the corrected total for pledges and gifts, as of the end of 2006, is $26,157,892, a figure approximately $1.4 million lower than previously reported. Bailey also released a new report, as of 3/31/2007, which shows $26,331,807 in total pledges and gifts for Joining Hearts and Hands.

Joining Hearts & Hands (MIJHH) is a five-year campaign of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to raise $40 million for new international mission workers and church growth in this country, particularly racial ethnic and immigrant congregations.

Bailey, who also serves as the Council’s Chief Financial Officer, said, “The errors were simple mistakes between campaign staff and accounting staff, but they had significant consequences.” The $1.4 million error consisted of the unintentional double reporting of a $1 million gift and the omission of its associated investment income, and a separate mistake in calculation, which increased the amount of a pledge by the amount already given (approximately $400,000).

Bailey said, “We take our obligation for accuracy and integrity of accounting and reporting seriously and regret these mistakes. We have taken measures to strengthen our processes and internal controls in order to prevent such mistakes from being made in the future.” Bailey cites a new quarterly activity report as one of the process improvements - “with the new report we will be able to track more closely the campaign’s comprehensive progress in each quarter, making errors easier to spot and correct.”

“We sincerely regret the human errors, which led to the release of incorrect information on behalf of our fundraising efforts,” said the Rev. Joanna Adams and the Rev. Dave Peterson, co-chairs of the Joining Hearts & Hands steering committee, in a joint statement. “Joining Hearts & Hands has always been about moving forward in hope toward God’s new day, which is what we will continue to do from here.”