HENRY COUNTY — The Henry County Board of Commissioners voted Dec. 29 to approve a resolution amending and finalizing the county’s year-end budgets for fiscal years 2022-23 and 2023-24, measures described by county officials as bookkeeping cleanups required by the auditors.

County Manager Sherry Matthews told the board the resolution amends prior fiscal years and makes final appropriations, explaining that delayed audits prompted a combined closeout. “We just want to clean up these two fiscal years and get them closed out, and we need a resolution from the board to do that,” Matthews said. She listed the accounts affected — including the general fund, law library fund, confiscated assets fund, Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) accounts, CARES and ESG CARES funds, the Red Speed fund, E-911, COVID-19 funds, court funds, juvenile assistance funds and Henry First funds — and said the adjustments reflect accounting reallocations rather than new revenue.

Matthews said auditors advised some entries recorded as "due to/due from" should have been coded as transfers; correcting those entries ensures the county’s financial statements properly reflect interfund activity. “This is cleaning up previous fiscal years, and it also has no impact on our fund balance whatsoever,” she said.

Auditor Doug Moses, who joined the meeting by video, told commissioners the 2024 audit is in quality-control review and that the firm expected to set an audit report date “either as of today or tomorrow,” with full financial statements likely to be issued in the first or second week of January. Moses said the firm will then begin the 2025 audit to bring the county current on its audits.

A commissioner asked why the amendments were not completed at the end of fiscal year 2023; Matthews said delays in completing the 2022-23 and 2023-24 audits led staff to perform a consolidated closeout once audit issues were ready to be addressed. Another commissioner emphasized that the changes do not request new funds but reallocate existing monies.

After the discussion, a commissioner moved to approve the resolution and the chair called for a voice vote. “Motion carries,” the chair said; the transcript records a voice approval but does not provide a roll-call tally.

Next steps spelled out in the meeting include issuance of the final audit report in early January and commencement of the 2025 audit work. The resolution approved on Dec. 29 authorizes the accounting adjustments needed to close out the specified years; the transcript does not disclose dollar amounts associated with the individual fund amendments.