External auditors give Guilford County a clean opinion; two minor single-audit findings noted

External auditors told the Guilford County Board of Commissioners they issued unmodified ("clean") opinions on the county's financial statements and single-audit testing, noting two minor findings that did not affect the audit opinions.

April Adams, engagement director for Cherry Beckert, said the auditors found no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that rose to the level of altering the opinion. The auditors reported two nonmaterial single-audit findings: one instance in which a maternal-and-child-health clinic participant's fee was not charged as expected in a 40-sample test, and a second finding that an opioid-fund report due at the end of June was submitted in early July.

"We did issue what we call unmodified opinions," Adams said. "That's also known as clean opinions." She told the board the county's accounting and reporting system required no journal-entry corrections and that management had provided required representations during the audit.

Audit-committee members and commissioners praised finance and internal-audit staff for progress on prior issues, and county leaders said they would incorporate auditor recommendations. The board took the report and congratulated staff on the outcome; auditors offered to answer follow-up questions and indicated they would continue to report on corrective actions for the two nonmaterial items.

Next steps include addressing the two procedural findings, continuing single-audit compliance work and maintaining quarterly updates to the board as needed.