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City audit: independent auditor issues unmodified opinion; staff flagged $2.6 million accounting restatement
Summary
Malden & Jenkins delivered an unmodified (clean) audit opinion for Winter Haven’s fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2024. The firm identified an accounting‑standards driven restatement of approximately $2.6 million related to compensated absences and reported no current‑year findings in single‑audit testing of federal and state awards.
Malden & Jenkins partner Daniel Anderson presented the city’s fiscal‑year 2024 audit at the April 28 commission meeting and reported an unmodified opinion on the city’s financial statements.
Anderson told the commission that the firm performed the audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and government auditing standards. He said an accounting standard change affecting how compensated absences (vacation and sick leave accruals) are reported required a restatement of roughly $2,600,000 that decreased the government’s net position. Anderson said the city properly implemented the new standard in the annual comprehensive financial report.
The auditor also reported results from the compliance work required when a government spends federal and state awards. The city spent more than $17.5 million in federal and state awards, triggering a single audit; auditors tested four major programs as part of that work and reported no compliance or internal‑control issues for those programs in the current year. The auditor said there were no current‑year findings in the yellow‑book testing of internal controls and compliance.
Anderson highlighted other routine audit matters: management is responsible for preparing the financial statements and selecting accounting policies; the auditor said there were no disagreements with management on accounting policies, no unrecorded audit adjustments left unposted, and that the firm is independent under AICPA professional requirements. He thanked the finance staff for their cooperation.
After the presentation, Mayor and commissioners commended the chief financial officer and assistant finance director for the clean audit opinion.
