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Bowie auditors issue unmodified opinion; council accepts FY2024 audit
Summary
City auditors gave the City of Bowie an unmodified opinion on its 2024 financial statements, reporting roughly $21.8 million in revenues, $19.7 million in expenses and a $2.1 million net position increase; council accepted the audit after auditors noted material adjustments tied to fund reclassifications.
Valerie Halverson, a shareholder at Mathis West & Huffines, told the Bowie City Council the firm issued an unmodified opinion on the city’s 2024 financial statements, a finding she called “as nice as we get as auditors.” The report shows total revenues of about $21,800,000 and total expenses of roughly $19,700,000, producing a reported increase in net position of about $2,100,000 for the year. Halverson said approximately $1,100,000 of the revenue was capital grants and that the city held additional unearned grant revenue on the balance sheet that is available to spend on ongoing projects.
The auditors identified material audit adjustments related primarily to the reclassification of a street project and related debt so that the asset and the offsetting debt appear in the correct governmental fund. Halverson described that adjustment as the most material change necessary to present the statements in accordance with GAAP, and she summarized the report’s internal‑control findings as a material weakness tied to those adjustments. She also reviewed restricted assets, pension liabilities (reporting the total pension liability and the related assets used to calculate a net pension liability), and the city’s fund‑balance targets; she said the unassigned general‑fund balance was about $4.2 million.
Councilmember Sproles moved to accept the audit as presented; the motion was seconded and the council approved the audit report. The auditor also delivered an examination report on the city’s Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund spending, reporting compliance and an unmodified opinion for that specific review, with roughly $500,000 remaining in the recovery fund at the time of the audit.
The council did not amend the audit at the meeting. Staff and the auditor said the material adjustments were bookkeeping and classification corrections required to align capital projects and debt with governmental‑fund accounting; Halverson said staff had cooperated in producing schedules and supporting documentation.
What’s next: The city will file the audit and continue work to address the internal‑control matters identified by the auditors; councilmembers thanked staff and the auditors for the work and moved on to other items on the agenda.
