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Polk County audit shows clean opinion, stronger fund balance for fiscal 2024
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Summary
New auditors Patillo Brown & Hill reported an unmodified (clean) opinion and no findings on Polk County's 2024 financial statements and single‑audit, and noted the general fund ended the year with roughly 7.7 months of fund balance.
Kent Willis, a partner at Patillo Brown & Hill, told the Polk County Commissioners Court that his firm rendered an "unmodified opinion" on the county's financial statements for the year ended Sept. 30, 2024, and that the firm found "no deficiencies and no findings to report."
Willis said the county also received a clean opinion on the separate single audit of federal and state grant awards, noting that the auditors found no findings in that review either. "We have clean opinion, no findings in both the financial statement audit as well as the single audit," he said.
The auditor walked commissioners through key financial highlights in the annual comprehensive financial report. Willis said total general‑fund revenues for fiscal 2024 were about $30 million against expenditures of roughly $26 million, leaving a net change in fund balance of about $3.4 million. He emphasized the county's liquidity improvement: "You began the year with 6.1 months of fund balance and you ended with 7.7 months of fund balance."
Willis characterized a first‑year audit as a period when findings are most likely to appear because a new auditor brings a fresh set of questions; he said the absence of findings reflected well on county finance staff. "For a fresh set of eyes to come in ... to not find anything that rose to that level of finding is really good," he said.
Commissioners thanked the audit team and county finance staff for the work. The judge and several commissioners remarked that the transition to a new auditor went smoothly and praised the county's finance staff for cooperation during the fieldwork.
The presentation included a three‑year look at the county's claims and grant activity in the single‑audit appendix. Willis reviewed the single‑audit schedule of federal and state awards and said the audit team checked compliance with grant terms and reporting requirements and found no reportable exceptions.
The court did not take any separate formal action on the audit report during the meeting beyond receiving the presentation and discussing the results.
Ending: The county's 2024 audited financial statements and single‑audit report will be distributed with the audit documents; commissioners did not direct additional follow‑up beyond the routine acceptance and distribution of the audit materials to partners and staff.
