Waynesboro receives clean audit for FY2025; single-audit for federal grants to follow

Rebecca Gunden, senior audit manager at Brown Edwards, told the Waynesboro City Council the auditors issued a “clean or unmodified opinion” on the city’s FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, meaning the firm found the financial statements to be materially correct in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

Gunden said the firm will issue a separate single-audit report in January to document testing of federal grant expenditures because the Office of Management and Budget’s compliance requirements were not available in time for completion of all federal testing. “We will be issuing a separate single audit report, probably in January, that's specific to testing and our procedures with the federal money,” she said.

City finance staff thanked the audit team and noted the ACFR and accompanying letters — the opinion letter, management letter and report on internal control — would be posted on the city website and submitted to state and federal filing systems. City staff identified items they expect council members to watch when reviewing the packet: the unassigned fund balance shown in Exhibit 3 and the city’s reserve position. Finance staff said the safety-net policy is fully funded and cited an available fund balance used to keep the capital plan moving forward.

City staff also described the next administrative steps: submitting the transmittal to the state by the advertised deadline and filing the single-audit CIFA and federal audit clearinghouse materials once the single audit is complete. Officials said they do not anticipate bringing the ACFR back to council unless issues arise.