Independent auditors report clean opinions but identify material weakness, accounting adjustments and staffing delays

Grant Thornton told the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Audit Committee on May 29, 2024, that it will issue unmodified (clean) opinions for the fiscal‑year audits of the system's entities but is reporting a material weakness relating to how fringe‑benefit payments and related state appropriation revenue were recorded for the state universities and Connecticut State (CT State).

The auditors said the system reversed state appropriation revenue and related fringe expense in the university and CT State financial statements after determining the prior accounting approach was not appropriate given a new state law governing fringe‑benefit allocations. Claire Esten, managing partner at Grant Thornton, said, “these are still unmodified opinions,” while explaining the firm would include an emphasis‑of‑matter paragraph to call attention to the change in accounting treatment and comparability to prior years.

Why it matters: the adjustment was large enough that, had it not been detected and corrected, the financial…