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Audit committee directs review of airport, roads, GCAT and Moab tourism office; approves RFP work for internal and external auditors
Summary
The Grand County Internal Audit Committee voted Feb. 24 to have its contracted internal auditor evaluate controls over disbursements at the airport, roads, GCAT and the Moab tourism/office, and directed its consultant to draft RFPs for both internal and external auditors ahead of a May update on component-unit financials. The motion passed unanimously.
The Grand County Internal Audit Committee on Feb. 24 directed its contracted internal auditor to evaluate internal controls surrounding disbursements in four areas — roads, Grand County Area Transit (GCAT), the county’s Moab tourism/office entity (formerly referenced as Travel Council) and the airport — and approved work to develop requests for proposals for both internal and external auditors.
Committee members voted unanimously to “have Cody evaluate the controls related to the disbursement of roads, GCAT, travel council, and to continue with the airport report,” a motion recorded in the meeting minutes as moved by Commissioner Martinez and seconded by Adler. The recording shows the motion carried on a voice vote with no recorded dissents.
The committee’s contracted internal auditor, Cody, told the panel he has already begun airport work focused on reconciling COVID-era CARES/CRRSA and ARPA receipts and will finalize that report before beginning the new reviews. Cody summarized prior internal reviews he has performed for the county, including work on the Old Spanish Trail Arena, the airport, justice court, the library and payroll procedures.
Karen Curtin, the committee’s audit consultant, advised the panel on scope and sampling. “We can do things like ask him to select a sample of 30 disbursements, for example, and you would want the submitter, the reviewer, the approver, the documentation that is related to the specific restriction,” Curtin said, recommending a quarterly sample across the year for a reasonable and representative review.
Members stressed prioritizing departments with complex cash collections or multiple restricted funds. Cody defined restricted funds broadly to include special revenue funds such as the Class B road fund, TRT, airport capital projects, library debt service and similar funds that require specific tracking.
The committee also directed Curtin to work with county administration to draft two RFPs — one for the internal-auditor contract and one for the external financial-statement auditor — and circulate draft language ahead of the committee’s next meeting. Curtin said she would circulate drafts in advance and suggested advertising external-auditor RFPs in late summer or early fall so a firm could perform interim work before fiscal-year-end testing in October–November.
Committee members requested a near-term item for the next meeting: a status update from the clerk/auditor’s office on component-unit bookkeeping and a timeline that would allow the audit committee to review component financials before the full commission acts. Several members noted the county has been late in issuing annual financial statements in recent years and said improved interim reporting (quarterly, moving toward monthly) would help prevent future delays.
Separately, members flagged a $536,134 transaction the minutes showed flowing from TRT into a trail-maintenance account and asked the county attorney and administration to include the state auditor’s final letter and the detailed transaction on the next agenda for legal and accounting review.
The committee set a tentative next meeting for early-to-mid May, with an afternoon start around 3 p.m. to accommodate consultants in Central Time. The meeting adjourned following these items.
