Auditors give Easly City an unmodified opinion, note repeated reconciliation weaknesses

Ken Meadows, an auditor with Green, Finney, Cali and LLP, told the Easly City Council during its work session that the firm issued an unmodified opinion on the city’s fiscal 2024 financial statements after completing the audit in June.

Meadows said the auditors’ role is to provide “reasonable assurance” that the financial statements are materially correct and clarified that the audit is not a forensic fraud investigation: “We're not here to find fraud. That's not the purpose of this audit,” he said.

Meadows gave council members a high-level tour of key figures. The general fund balance decreased about $3.4 million in fiscal 2024 to about $10.3 million, of which $1.9 million were nonspendable prepaids and about $900,000 were assigned for future capital outlay, leaving an unassigned fund balance of about $7.5 million. That unassigned balance represented roughly 33% of actual fiscal 2024 expenditures and about 36% of the fiscal 2025 budgeted expenditures, which the auditor characterized as a healthy cushion compared with Government Finance…