EisnerAmper presented the city’s 2024 financial-statement audit to the Harahan City Council and issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the audited statements while reporting multiple findings and a restatement related to compensated absences.

Amanda Streepack, the signing partner on the engagement, told the council auditors completed the financial-statement audit in time for the legislative auditor and issued a clean opinion. The audit incorporated new government accounting guidance on compensated absences; auditors said recognizing that liability required a restatement to 2023 numbers. Streepack said the adjustment to prior-year figures totaled about $780,000 and explained auditors estimated accrued leave liabilities by averaging prior years’ earnings and leave usage.

The firm also reviewed federal awards and identified the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) program as a major federal program for testing; the city reported about $3.9 million in federal-program expenditures for fiscal 2024, the auditors said, with ARPA accounting for roughly $2.6 million and FEMA-related amounts at about $1.3 million. EisnerAmper reported a clean opinion on ARPA compliance testing but included findings: a significant deficiency related to ARPA budgeting at year end, two findings tied to public-bid documentation (one state compliance, one ARPA-specific), and a finding related to preparing the Schedule of Federal Awards because of reporting complexities.

Council members seized on several items. Councilman Buddy and others pressed for department-level detail to resolve questions raised in public comment about whether the police department had been reported by the city as over budget. Audit presenters said the schedules in the audit package present the government-wide and fund-level results and that the audit did not show a departmental overage for the police department in the files the auditors reviewed. Council members nonetheless asked the finance director and auditors to provide more granular schedules showing department-by-department activity and to consider an independent review if necessary to resolve outstanding questions raised by council and members of the public.

Auditors also reported results of the “yellow book” (state compliance) engagement and statewide agreed-upon procedures; those procedures produced a small number of additional reportable matters (not rising to the level of a material weakness), which were disclosed with management responses in the audit packet. Streepack told the council that, overall, the audit went smoothly despite the additional federal-program reporting requirements and thanked city staff for assistance.

Why it matters: The city received a clean opinion on its financial statements, but auditors recorded findings that the council and staff must address for federal-program compliance and internal control. Council members requested follow-up materials, including department-level budget comparisons, and discussed pursuing an independent review to clear disputed budget questions.