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State auditors give Hampshire County 'unmodified' opinions for county funds but flag component-unit issues
Summary
The State Auditor's Office presented the fiscal 2023 and 2024 audit exit conference: governmental funds received unmodified opinions, but the aggregate discretely presented component units triggered an adverse opinion for 2024 because the development authority and a board were unaudited or not included.
Sally Martin of the State Auditor’s Office presented the exit conference for Hampshire County’s fiscal 2023 and 2024 audits at the April 15 meeting and told commissioners the county’s governmental funds received generally favorable opinions but there were notable reporting gaps related to component units.
For fiscal year 2023 the auditor issued an unmodified opinion on county governmental activities and major funds. For fiscal year 2024 auditors issued an adverse opinion on the aggregate discretely presented component units because the Hampshire County Development Authority was not audited and the Board of Health’s audit information was not included in the client-prepared statements. "Because the development authority wasn't audited and we didn't have any numbers to even look at, we couldn't say that the discretely presented component units were materially correct," Martin told commissioners.
Martin said the county otherwise received unmodified opinions for governmental activities, major funds and aggregate remaining fund information for 2024. She reported no single-audit findings for the federal grants tested (Community Development Block Grant and American Rescue Plan Act funds) and said all tested grant compliance requirements were met.
Auditors repeated two recurring matters for the county: first, discrepancies in the county clerk's trial balances tied to software and bookkeeping processing; and second, expenditures recorded in excess of amounts in levy estimates in the general fund and the coal severance tax fund. Martin said some overages were linked to how voided checks were recorded in the county system and to staff turnover and learning the accounting software; she recommended follow-up adjustments and the county asked Martin to forward suggested financial-statement adjustments to the county’s financial statement preparer.
Ending: Commissioners said they are working to engage the development authority and ensure its audit is completed so that future county financial statements can include audited component-unit numbers and avoid adverse opinions.
