Jackson County auditors issue clean opinion but note internal-control deficiency; legislators press for follow-up on missing funds

Auditors presenting Jackson County’s 2024 annual comprehensive financial report told the legislature they issued an unmodified (clean) opinion but identified one significant internal-control deficiency and other matters staff should address.

Cheryl Coulter of the county finance department introduced auditors Jonathan Nybarger and Brian Holst, who said the audit team issued a clean opinion — the highest level of assurance — and highlighted several governance items, including a roughly $3,000,000 increase in the county’s compensated-absence liability after implementing a new accounting standard and a software conversion that delayed the report’s issuance.

The governance letter noted the county implemented a Governmental Accounting Standards Board change related to compensated absences and said the change required the county to estimate the portion of accrued leave employees are likely to use. The auditors also reported one material audit adjustment: about $10,000,000 related to construction-in-process amounts on a detention center project that had not been previously recorded.

Auditors told the legislature the county elected to record the compensated-absence change as a current-year…