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Arizona Auditor General and Walker & Armstrong issue clean opinion on Mohave County 2024 financials; auditors flag IT controls and reconciliation weaknesses
Summary
Contract auditors delivered a clean (unmodified) opinion on Mohave County’s FY2024 financial statements but identified three significant internal‑control deficiencies related to account reconciliations and IT risk assessment and contingency planning; the single-audit testing found some federal reports filed late.
Contract auditors for the Arizona Auditor General’s office presented Mohave County’s fiscal year 2024 audited financial statements to the Board of Supervisors on May 19, reporting an unmodified (clean) audit opinion on the county’s financial statements while identifying several internal-control findings.
Carla Ball of the Auditor General’s office and Curtis Bright of Walker & Armstrong summarized results. The county’s governmental current assets were roughly $255 million, including about $234 million in cash; total government capital assets rose about $16 million during the year. The auditors said revenues exceeded expenses in fiscal 2024, producing an increase in available resources.
Auditors reported three significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting: (1) account-reconciliation weaknesses including unreconciled inventory and bank reconciling items dating to 2021; (2) IT risk‑assessment gaps, where the county’s IT risk assessment did not fully identify/analyze IT systems and risks; and (3) inadequate contingency‑planning tests and logical access controls for IT systems. Walker & Armstrong noted management is working on corrective plans; the county identified steps including additional accounting staff and an IT remediation plan with an entitywide risk assessment (the county said it plans to partner with the Arizona National Guard to complete the assessment).
For the single-audit (federal awards) work, auditors reported late filing of three monthly federal financial reports for a program tested (July 2023, August 2023 and May 2024). Auditors said the reports were accurate but untimely.
Board action: The Board accepted the audit presentation and voted to accept the FY2024 audited financial reports.
Why this matters: A clean opinion affirms the county’s statements conform to governmental accounting standards, but the internal-control findings signal areas where the county needs to strengthen reconciliation processes and IT risk and contingency planning to reduce future risks to financial reporting and operations.
Follow-up: County staff told supervisors they have budgeted for an additional accounting position and will work with IT to provide quarterly updates on remediation progress.
