Custer County auditors deliver draft 2024 financial report; no major federal compliance findings

Sam Donardo, the independent auditor who led the presentation, told the Custer County Board of Commissioners at an Oct. workshop that the county's draft 2024 financial statements received an unmodified opinion and that the main body of the report is not expected to change beyond minor typographical corrections.

Donardo said the auditor's three-page opinion states in plain terms that "we think the financial statements as they're presented fairly present financial position and results of operations as they apply to governmental entities." He also explained the county is subject to single-audit rules this year because federal grant expenditures exceeded the federal threshold for 2024.

Why it matters: an unmodified opinion means the auditors found the county's financial statements to be free of material misstatement under government accounting standards. The single-audit work requires additional compliance testing and reporting for major federal programs; Donardo said his team selected programs that together met the sampling threshold used in single-audit guidance and found no questioned costs to report for 2024.

Key findings and figures

- Audit opinion: Donardo presented an unmodified (clean) auditor's opinion on the county's 2024 financial statements.

- Single-audit threshold and testing: The audit included a Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards; the total federal expenditures that triggered single-audit testing exceeded the traditional $750,000 threshold used in prior years. Donardo noted the federal threshold is moving toward $1,000,000 for future years and that the county will be evaluated year to year based on that standard.

- Fund- and government-wide results:…