Fairfax County auditor general says FY25 audit plan completed, highlights hotline growth and follow-ups
Summary
The Fairfax County Office of Auditor General reported completing 100% of its FY25 audit plan with management accepting all recommendations, described nearly 70 hotline reports in FY25 and provided status updates on open recommendations in procurement, hiring and construction.
Esther Koh, Auditor General for the Fairfax County Office of Auditor General, told the Audit Committee on Jan. 5 that the office completed its FY25 audit plan and has seen full acceptance of its recommendations. "We were able to complete 100% of our audit plan," Koh said, and "management accepted 100% of the recommendations."
Koh framed that performance as the result of the office's four pillars: risk assessment for topic selection, internal audit execution, a fraud/waste/abuse hotline and outreach and education. She said the annual report will be presented to the full school board on June 23 so the board's FY27 audit-topic discussion can be combined with the annual-report briefing. Koh said the June presentation can be updated with newer numbers if the committee requests it.
Deputy Auditor General Danielle Moore summarized the office's FY25 audit workload: "we completed 6 performance audits and 14 business process audits," including reviews of the procurement process, hiring (critical-process review), construction and renovation contracting, and required local school activity funds audits. Moore said procurement findings included misaligned policy and missing key performance indicators; the hiring audit found onboarding and data-silo issues; and the construction audit identified instances of noncompliance with contract terms and recommended improved contract monitoring.
Koh described the fraud, waste and abuse hotline as a growing source of leads; "last year alone ... we received close to 70 cases," she said, and the office has seen an upward trend since 2021. Koh told the committee the increase likely reflects broader awareness and outreach rather than a definitive rise in wrongdoing and proposed adding a supplemental metric ("reportable" or "credible" cases) to help the committee interpret volume. Board members asked the office to report referrals in the future and to distinguish cases that produced substantive findings from the overall intake.
The audit office also highlighted outreach work: a monthly newsletter with more than 4,000 subscribers, training offered to more than 1,000 employees, and continuing professional education credits through national accreditation. Moore and Koh described a two-year training plan for school finance staff to address turnover-related weaknesses identified in local school activity fund audits.
On audit follow-up, Monia presented the Oct. 31 status: "we currently have 5 audits with open recommendations and were able to close 11 this period." The follow-up briefing listed progress by audit: Food & Nutrition Services has benchmarking and manual updates in progress pending new nutrition software; procurement closed two recommendations after updating Regulation 5,012 to allow cooperative procurement and shifting to risk-based IT vendor selection; hiring has verified onboarding workflow improvements; and construction has implemented automated reminders for submittal reviews and clarified change-order thresholds to align with Virginia code.
During discussion, committee members pressed several accountability questions: whether a consistent 100% completion rate compared with a 70% peer benchmark means the OAG's workload is lighter or its processes are different, and whether management accepts recommendations because they are feasible or because they are less challenging. Koh and Moore said the office strives to make actionable, high-value recommendations while preserving managerial flexibility and that a forthcoming peer-review and benchmarking follow-up will look into those peer differences.
The committee took two formal procedural actions during the meeting: approval of the Nov. 17, 2025 audit committee minutes (motion moved by Mr. Moon, seconded by "Miss Saint John Cunning," passed unanimously for those at the table) and a unanimous motion (moved by Mr. Moon, seconded by Mr. McDaniel) to recess the public meeting at 5:01 p.m. and enter closed session to discuss personnel, security and legal matters under the Code of Virginia.
What happens next: the OAG will present a peer-review result at the March audit committee meeting, update data for the June board presentation as requested, and the audit follow-up will return to the March meeting with updated statuses.
