Nelson County receives clean audit for fiscal 2024, auditors report no material weaknesses

The Nelson County Board of Supervisors heard a presentation on May 13 from David Foley, a partner at Robinson Farmer Cox and Associates, summarizing the county's fiscal year 2024 audit.

Foley told the board the audit included three parts: the financial statement audit for conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), an internal-control review under Government Auditing Standards, and a federal single-audit review for major federal grant programs. He said the firm issued an unmodified opinion for the county's financial statements and found no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in internal control. "So overall, it was a very clean audit for the county," Foley said.

The auditor said the federal compliance review covered programs subject to the single-audit threshold (spending above $750,000 in federal grant funds) and that no instances of noncompliance were identified. Foley also summarized required communications to governance about accounting estimates (for example, depreciation lives and pension/OPEB liabilities based on actuarial evaluations), corrected misstatements, and the absence of disagreements with management.

Board members asked about the timing of fieldwork and whether the county's accounting systems and processes compared well with peer localities; Foley said the county uses a commonly used governmental accounting system and that reconciliations and processes appeared efficient during the audit.

The presentation was informational; no formal vote was required. The board thanked county staff and the auditors for completing the report and for the work that produced a clean set of audit opinions and governance communications.