Metro audit office reports unmodified single-audit findings; recommends improvements to bank reconciliations and property tax posting

Metro Nashville’s audit office presented the Schedule of Expenditures of Federal and State Awards (SEFA) and an accompanying management letter for fiscal year 2024, reporting unmodified independent auditor opinions and no material weaknesses.

Auditors said the city’s single-audit reports — including a report on internal control under Government Auditing Standards and a report on compliance with the Uniform Guidance for major programs — were unmodified. The SEFA identified the special education cluster, certain federal education grants, and Coronavirus State and Local Recovery funds as major programs for FY24.

In the management letter, auditors offered two operational comments rather than findings: (1) timely preparation of bank reconciliations remains an area for improvement; staff are implementing automated reconciliations and additional IT solutions to reduce manual exceptions, and (2) property tax receipts testing identified two individual property receipts that were not reflected in the eGov taxpayer accounts within a large batch payment. Auditors said the trustee’s office posted corrections after investigators raised the issue and recommended monthly reconciliations between eGov and bank receipts to prevent recurrence.

Committee members pressed auditors for quantitative detail about the size and age of unreconciled cash items; auditors said they did not have an immediate figure available during the presentation. Audit staff also reported Metro’s low risk designation for FY24 under single-audit risk assessment rules.

The committee voted to accept the SEFA presentation and subsequently accepted the management letter; auditors will follow up on implementation of the recommendations as part of routine recommendation-tracking procedures.