External auditors give Accomack County a clean opinion on FY 2024 financial statements

At the April 16 meeting Brown Edwards, the county’s external auditors, presented Accomack County’s FY 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and related reports. Danielle Nicholson, audit director with Brown Edwards, told the board the firm issued a clean, unmodified opinion on the county’s financial statements, the highest level of assurance for a governmental audit. The auditors also issued a clean opinion on the county’s federal single audit testing for programs tested.

The auditors noted their opinion relies on the work of other audit firms for the Planning District Commission and the public library, whose audit reports’ financial information is included in the ACFR. The audit package also includes management’s discussion and analysis, fund financial statements, footnotes, and supplementary information (including the schedule of expenditures of federal awards). The auditors described the separate report to the board detailing recommended internal control improvements, GASB pronouncements that will affect future reporting, and schedules of audit adjustments.

Leslie Lewis, the county finance director, provided additional context, saying the total general fund balance as of June 30, 2024, stood at $70 million — much of which is committed or assigned for specific purposes (for example, a rainy day fund and capital projects) and that approximately $8 million remained as unassigned fund balance as of that date (that amount has subsequently been reappropriated in the FY 2026 budget, Lewis said).

Ending: Auditors and staff invited board members to contact the audit team with questions and noted corrective action plans where findings were reported; the audit manager maintained regular communication with the audit committee throughout the audit process.