Denali Borough audit returns clean opinion; reserves strong

Denali Borough officials at the Jan. 14 assembly meeting were told by outside auditors that the borough’s fiscal-year 2025 financial statements received an unmodified (clean) opinion.

Cynthia Morgan of Alliance CPAs told the assembly the firm completed testing in December and “issued a clean or unmodified audit opinion,” and found the statements to be fairly presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. The audit report also noted no material weaknesses or instances of noncompliance discovered in the audit procedures.

Morgan highlighted several figures from the financial statements: a total net position of about $42.5 million, roughly $15 million of unrestricted net position and a general-fund unassigned balance that represents roughly 55% of annual general-fund revenue — a reserve level Morgan described as providing substantial short-term stability. She also said federal and state grant expenditures for the borough were below the single-audit threshold ($750,000) and therefore a single audit was not required for the year ended 06/30/2025.

The auditors outlined upcoming reporting changes tied to new GASB pronouncements that will affect fiscal-year 2026 presentations and disclosures, and urged the borough to prepare for more detailed management discussion and analysis and expanded capital-asset disclosures. Assembly members and staff praised borough finance staff for the strong results and the internal controls that supported the clean audit.

The assembly received the audit presentation; no formal action was required or taken on the audit report at the meeting.