Anson County Schools audit finds unmodified opinion but flags three material weaknesses

Auditor Nick Wicker told the Anson County Board of Education that the district’s FY24 financial statements received an unmodified — or “clean” — opinion, but his team identified three material weaknesses and other correction items that board and staff must address.

“We expressed an unmodified opinion over your basic financial statements,” Wicker said, summarizing the audit work and the firm’s ability to opine on the statements. He noted the firm performed the annual audit, assisted with preparation of disclosures and communicated recommendations to management.

Wicker identified three material weaknesses: excessive expenditures over appropriations (a repeat finding), internal controls over capital assets and general ledger control issues. He offered to discuss the findings immediately or at the audit committee’s next meeting.

The audit included several quantified issues. Wicker said the general fund instructional services were overspent by $12,928 and ancillary services by $5,718. The Child Nutrition Fund was overexpended by $58,387, largely owing to pension and OPEB-related journal entries that the auditor said are difficult to predict in the budget process. Wicker recommended building additional cushion in those lines.

On capital assets, the auditor reported $385,823 of expenditures within governmental funds and $14,871 within the school food services fund that met the district’s capitalization threshold but were recorded as current-period expenditures instead of added to the capital asset listing. He attributed some errors to turnover in a key position responsible for asset tracking.

Wicker also summarized fund-balance and revenue trends for FY24: total governmental fund balance decreased $915,370 compared with FY23 (a $789,417 decrease in the general fund), state revenues fell by $1,489,506, while U.S. government revenues increased $2,423,523; overall revenues rose $1,659,596 compared with FY23. He said the child nutrition net position declined $386,048 for the year and noted a small list of uncorrected misstatements, including a commodities inventory understatement of $1,764.

Board members asked clarifying questions during the presentation; Wicker said there were no disagreements with management over accounting procedures and that a signed management representation letter was obtained. He closed by reiterating the recommendations and thanked the board and staff for the opportunity to present.

The board received the audit report; the auditor said specific recommendations and the AUC letters (required audit communications) would be available for follow-up with governance and the audit committee.