Board accepts Prince Edward County fiscal-year audit; auditors issue unmodified opinion with one school-reporting finding

The Board of Supervisors accepted Prince Edward County's fiscal-year audit after a presentation by Josh Roller, lead CPA with Robinson, Farmer & Cox, who said the firm issued an unmodified opinion on the county's financial statements.

Roller walked the board through key exhibits and notes, highlighting that the audit is, as drafted, a clean financial opinion and pointing to exhibit and note locations for fund balances, long-term obligations and special-project fund breakdowns. He noted one forthcoming reclassification in the final report: unspent loan proceeds totaling $4,900,000 should be recorded as restricted fund balance rather than unassigned; that reclassification would not change total fund balance.

On internal controls, Roller said the audit report contains no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. Regarding federal programs, the auditors issued a clean opinion on federal compliance. The auditors did report a repeat state-compliance finding related to the School Board's annual report: the report is required by the Code of Virginia to be filed by Sept. 15 but was filed late in December. Roller said the late filing had no funding impact but must be reported under state compliance requirements.

Board members discussed budget variances and revenue performance. Staff noted the school system ended the year roughly $2,000,000 under budget and that the general fund revenue finished higher than expected in part because of increased interest earnings; staff also noted a committed $4,900,000 for the radio system loan and prior commitments of up to $3,000,000 for the Manor turn-lane project.

Following the presentation, a supervisor moved to accept the fiscal-year audit "as presented on the last page of your packet." A second was recorded and a roll-call vote approved the motion; the board thanked the finance staff and auditors.