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External auditors give 'unmodified' opinion to St. Mary Parish School Board; limited compliance findings noted
Summary
An independent audit of Saint Mary Parish School Board finances for the year ending June 30, 2024, received an unmodified opinion, with auditors noting a few compliance and contract‑administration matters to address.
Darnell Sykes and Frederick, the district's independent auditors, presented the audit report for the year ending June 30, 2024, to the Saint Mary Parish School Board on Jan. 9.
Auditor Chris Miller said the firm issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements — the highest audit opinion — and that the financial information presented to the board during the year is consistent with the audit report. The auditors also performed federally required testing on selected federal programs (child nutrition cluster and special education cluster) and reported no instances of noncompliance or reportable internal-control deficiencies for those tested programs.
The audit report did note several items the auditors are required to disclose: (1) an internal-control finding related to an ongoing investigation of school student-activity funds (the issue was public and therefore included in the report), (2) a compliance finding that ESSER (COVID-relief) grant budgets were not included in the district's annual operating budget as required under the Local Government Budget Act (the auditors characterized this as an oversight after consultation with the legislative auditor), and (3) that some federally funded contracts lacked required contract provisions (equal employment opportunity, Davis‑Bacon, termination-for-cause and debarment/suspension clauses); the third-party contract administrator was notified and staff said corrective action and contract amendments were underway.
Miller also noted the statewide agreed-upon procedures (SAUP) testing yielded no exceptions, and he thanked the finance team for their cooperation. The board did not make policy changes during the presentation; the audit will be posted on the district website per the superintendent's remarks.
Ending: The audit provides a clean opinion but identifies compliance and contract-administration items the district will address; staff indicated corrective measures are in motion and the audit will be posted publicly.
