Plante Moran finds 14 audit issues in Wayne Countyincluding 13 material weaknesses; corrective actions due

Plante Moran, the county—s external auditor, told the Wayne County Committee on Audit on July 1, 2025, that its audit of the county—s financial statements for the year ended Sept. 30, 2024, produced 14 findings for the financial statements—13 material weaknesses and one significant deficiency—and one finding in the federal single-audit related to the aging cluster.

The finding summary included long-standing issues and new problems that affect accounting, controls and compliance. Plante Moran highlighted recurring auditor-identified adjustments (including a decades-long misallocation of library penalty fines estimated at $3 million to $4 million), unreconciled cash differences of roughly $290,000 in inmate property accounts, weaknesses in online-banking controls that could permit wire transfers without secondary approval, incomplete or untimely bank reconciliations and gaps in payroll-conversion reconciliations. The auditors also flagged IT backup practices (full network backups only twice a year), data errors in the actuarial census used for retiree health-care (OPEB) valuation and the absence of a budget for the building authority special revenue fund.

"There are 14 financial statement findings. 13 of those are material weaknesses, and 1 is a significant deficiency," Plante Moran senior staff told the committee.…