External audit flags URS payroll control weakness; county council accepts 2024 audit

Tooele County Council accepted the county—s 2024 external audit after Larson & Company presented unmodified opinions on the financial statements and federal single-audit reports, and explained a material weakness tied to URS payroll contributions. The council voted unanimously to accept the audit as presented.

John, a representative of Larson & Company, told the council the firm issued an unmodified opinion on the county—s financial statements, saying, "This 1 is primarily on the financial statements. It's an unmodified or an unqualified opinion." He said the firm also issued unmodified opinions for the single-audit of federal programs and state-audit compliance tests.

The audit report identified one material weakness related to the county—s reporting and remittance of employee and employer contributions to the Utah Retirement System. John told the council, "There is 1 finding that we'll talk about, and and and it we consider a a material weakness." He recommended the county work with URS to reconcile individual employee accounts over a multi-year period rather than relying solely on sampling, saying that approach would identify who was overfunded or underfunded and produce a net position for the county and individual employees.

Larson noted other items: prior-year findings on bank reconciliations had been substantially corrected though reconciliations were still not performed inside the county—s financial system; and a state-compliance control finding where a deposit was not made within the statutory three-day maximum owing to staff illness. John characterized the deposit issue as a control weakness and recommended cross-training so deposits are handled if a staff member is unavailable.

County Auditor Allison McCoy and council members discussed remediation. John told the council his expectation was that the URS-related material weakness would be addressed in the next audit cycle: "My expectation is this this is taken care of next year. My hope by the 2025, this material weakness is gone." Allison acknowledged the difficulty the auditor's office has faced and said staff had worked heavily to provide documentation for the audit.

Councilman Wardle moved to accept the audit; Councilman Strumberg seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

The audit presentation also reviewed management—s discussion and analysis, internal-control testing, and the county—s compliance with the state auditor—s compliance guide. Larson emphasized the importance of internal controls and the auditor role in monitoring and advising county departments.

The council accepted the audit; staff said they would work with Larson and the county—s external consultants to reconcile URS balances and strengthen deposit controls.