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County auditor gives Polk County a clean opinion on 2024 financial statements
Summary
CliftonLarsonAllen presented Polk County's fiscal 2024 audit results, reporting an unmodified (clean) opinion on the financial statements, no material weaknesses in internal control, and no findings in the management letter.
Lance Schmidt, managing partner for CliftonLarsonAllen's Central Florida practice, told the Polk County Board of County Commissioners on May 12 that the firm issued an unmodified opinion on the county's financial statements for the year ending Sept. 30, 2024.
"You received an unmodified opinion. That is a clean opinion, and it's the best opinion you can receive on the financial statement," Schmidt said. He told the board the audit included additional compliance work (a single-audit-style compliance review) for five programs — two federal and three state — and that the county received an unmodified opinion on compliance for those programs.
Schmidt said the audit team also issued an independent auditors' report on internal control and a Florida-required management letter. "We had no findings or recommendations there," he said. He added the audit involved roughly 3,000 hours of work and included separate reports on landfill closure escrow, county-funded court functions, and two community redevelopment agencies.
The presentation acknowledged a single item discussed at the county's audit and finance committee but did not characterize it as a material weakness. Schmidt praised county staff and the clerk's office for their cooperation in producing the comprehensive annual financial report and a condensed popular annual financial report provided to the board.
The presentation concluded with no formal board action requested; commissioners thanked the audit team and had no substantive follow-up questions recorded in the transcript.
Polk County staff will have the complete annual comprehensive financial report on the public record; Schmidt said the report contains full detail beyond the highlights presented to the board.
