City and county 2024 audits receive clean opinions; auditors flag three IT control gaps

FORVIS LLP presented the 2024 financial and single-audit results for the City of Indianapolis and Marion County at the July 25, 2025, meeting of the Indianapolis Marion County Audit Committee, reporting unmodified (clean) opinions for both entities.

The auditors told the committee the audits found no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in either the city or the county financial statements. "We're very pleased that the audit results are very clean," FORVIS partner Rick Lickering said. The firm also reported no material findings for the single audits of federal programs.

The committee heard that auditors identified three low-level information-technology control deficiencies affecting financial systems. The issues involved (1) inconsistent enforcement of password requirements across employees, (2) lack of documented, periodic review of user access to financial systems, and (3) incomplete documentation showing that access is revoked when staff leave. FORVIS said the password issue was corrected subsequent to year-end and recommended the city and county adopt a process requiring positive confirmation from department or agency heads that their user-access lists are accurate.

Sarah Sears, a member of the audit team, summarized the single-audit testing results: the city had three major federal programs tested—representing $132,000,000 in expenditures on a $181,000,000 Schedule of Federal Expenditures (SEFA) for 2024—and the county had two major programs tested, representing $6,300,000 of $11,100,000 in federal spending. Auditors noted both entities’ reported federal spending declined from 2023 as American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds were spent down. Sears said, "We issued clean or unmodified opinions on all the programs that we tested."

Auditors also briefed the committee on recently adopted and upcoming Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) pronouncements. FORVIS said GASB Statement changes this year (discussed as GASB 100 and GASB 101 during the presentation) changed presentation and disclosure around fund reporting and compensated-absence accounting; the auditors said those changes were not materially impactful for the city or county but required evaluation and disclosure.

Committee Chair David Reynolds acknowledged Controller Abby Hanson, the Office of Finance and Management leadership, and the city’s audit staff for their work producing the reports. The auditors thanked multiple staff across departments for assistance during the audit process.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved the prior meeting minutes by voice vote and later adjourned by motion; the transcript records the motions and that the motions carried, but the mover, seconder and an exact roll-call tally were not specified in the meeting record.

The auditors made a number of process recommendations the committee said staff would track and the auditors will re-test in the next audit cycle. FORVIS emphasized that management remains responsible for preparing the financial statements and maintaining internal controls over financial reporting; the auditors’ role is independent verification and reporting.

The presentation materials and the entities’ comprehensive annual financial reports will be posted online, the committee said, and the next audit-committee meeting will be Oct. 31, 2025, at 9 a.m.