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State Auditor issues clean opinions on Okanogan County financials and federal grants
Summary
The State Auditor's Wenatchee team reported an unmodified (clean) opinion on the county's financial statements under the county's cash basis and an unmodified opinion on federal grants examined; auditors noted an adverse opinion only relative to full‑accrual GAAP (explained in the report) and no material internal control weaknesses.
Representatives from the Washington State Auditor's Office presented exit results to the Board of County Commissioners and county staff. Jake Santas Steven, team manager, and Kathleen Lentz, assistant manager, summarized financial and federal grant audit findings and next steps.
Kathleen Lentz said the auditors issued an unmodified opinion on the county's financial statements as prepared under the county's regulatory cash basis of accounting and that, separately, the report includes an adverse explanatory note relative to full‑accrual GAAP reporting (the state permits cash‑basis reporting for many local governments). "We issued an unmodified opinion, which is essentially a clean opinion, over the fair presentation of the county's financials in accordance with the regulatory basis of accounting," Lentz said, adding that the adverse opinion is a disclosure for readers about reporting frameworks rather than an audit failure.
The auditors reported no material weaknesses in internal control and no material instances of noncompliance. On federal grants, the audit team issued an unmodified opinion on the major programs they tested, including the Forest Service Schools & Roads cluster and the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds; auditors said testing showed the county's federal compliance work was very clean.
Auditors noted a small number of low‑level recommendations, many already addressed by county staff, and provided guidance on implementation of new compensated‑absences reporting guidance that affects liabilities schedules across reporting frameworks. The team also confirmed that prior audit findings had been corrected.
Next steps: auditors will coordinate publication and federal clearinghouse submissions and the county will prepare any supplemental resolutions requested by auditors. Commissioners were told the audit is effectively clean and that next year's accountability audit will be a two‑year review covering 2024–2025.
