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Auditors present 2024 audit; board accepts report and directs reforms on payroll, capital assets and fund accounting
Summary
External auditors reported Polk County's 2024 audit findings and recommended improvements to payroll oversight, capital-asset accounting and fund accounting. Commissioners accepted the audit, approved follow-up steps and discussed staffing and policy changes to reduce future findings.
External auditors presented Polk County's 2024 financial-audit report, outlining a clean (unmodified) audit opinion while identifying several findings and recommended process improvements spanning payroll controls, capital-asset accounting, fund accounting and medical-assistance eligibility documentation.
Auditors told the board that the county met the federal reporting deadline for 2024 and that many routine accounting processes are improving under recent staff changes and vendor support. They recommended stronger internal controls over payroll (including segregation of duties and supervisory review), a formal capital-asset inventory and clearer fund-accounting practices to reduce transfers and unnecessary interfund movement.
The auditors described a small number of federal single-audit findings tied to medical-assistance eligibility documentation; county social-services staff reported they are working to resolve documentation inconsistencies and expected several items to be cleared in follow-up reviews. Auditors also noted county ditch-fund deficits and encouraged a plan to address those balances over multiple years.
Commissioners and county finance staff discussed practical steps: cross-training payroll backups, centralizing some accounting duties, creating a capital-improvement plan and adopting clearer fund-balance policies (auditors reiterated a commonly cited reserve guideline of roughly 35—50 percent of next year's expenditures for general fund planning). Several commissioners and staff said they would consider adding a finance or payroll supervisory position in the 2026 budget to handle oversight tasks that cannot be absorbed by existing staff.
Following the presentation, a motion to accept the audit and to authorize staff to implement recommended follow-up steps carried by voice vote. The auditors and county staff said they will return to future meetings with progress reports on payroll controls, asset inventory, fund-balance policy proposals and status of federal findings.
