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County audit yields clean opinion but flags procurement and sheriff's overexpenditure
Summary
Clackamas County's FY24-25 audited financial statements received an unmodified opinion; auditors reported two compliance findings (a procurement advertising omission and a sheriff's office overexpenditure) and two minor uncorrected adjustments the county chose not to post.
Elizabeth Comfort, Clackamas County finance director, introduced the county's audited financial statements for fiscal year 2024-25 and said the county engaged Baker Tilly to perform the audit. Ashley Austin, Baker Tilly's lead auditor, told commissioners the audit team performed verification of accounts, substantive testing, internal control evaluation and federal grants compliance testing and that the results produced an unmodified opinion, meaning the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
Austin said auditors identified two compliance findings under Oregon minimum audit standards: a public improvement project was not properly advertised in a newspaper in addition to being posted on OregonBuys, and the sheriff's office had an overexpenditure in a budget line that auditors reported in the financial statement notes. She added auditors tested one major federal program (about $52 million) and reported no compliance findings for that major program.
Auditors also reported there were no corrected audit adjustments and two minor uncorrected audit adjustments that management elected not to post; Baker Tilly described management's decision as reasonable and noted no disagreements with management and no difficulties obtaining information during the audit.
Commissioners asked about the relationship between the adopted budget and the audit. Austin explained auditors verify that the legally adopted budget was properly adopted and that the budget amounts reported in the supplementary information reconcile to the audited financial statements; auditors report any current-year expenditures that exceed legally adopted budget amounts but do not perform an exhaustive line-by-line budget review.
The county's finance director and auditors stressed the audit covers the prior fiscal year and that an ordinance approved in 2026 would be considered in the 2026 audit risk assessment and procedures. The presentation closed with auditors confirming they found no reportable fraud, waste or abuse during the FY24-25 engagement.
Next steps: the audit results were presented to the board for information; no formal policy action was taken at this briefing.
