Hamblen County audit: unmodified opinion, fund balance rises; one school procurement finding

Hamblen County’s finance director, Amanda Hale, presented the county’s FY24-25 audit to the Audit Committee, saying the report — released by the state comptroller on March 11 — returned an unmodified opinion with no material weaknesses.

“The audit was released by the comptroller on March the 11th,” Hale said, and commissioners were directed to the full report on the comptroller’s website. Hale told the committee net revenues were up about $1.5 million year over year, and the county’s general fund balance grew from roughly $16 million to about $17.5 million.

Hale attributed revenue increases in part to about $1 million more in local taxes and roughly $500,000 in additional fees and local receipts, while expenses rose by about $2.8 million. She told commissioners that the county had hired three additional school resource officers (SROs) fully funded by the county and added jail staff in advance of the new facility opening; inmate medical costs rose by about $250,000.

The auditors attending the meeting — East Tennessee audit manager Robert Anderson and senior auditor Amy Sossamon — accompanied the presentation and were available to answer questions. Hale said unassigned fund balance grew to about $15.5 million and that the county’s ratio of unassigned fund balance to annual expenses was roughly 53 percent for 2024–25, well above the county’s target range of 20–25 percent. Hale described that position as a conservative strategy to protect against unforeseen costs.

The audit report included a single finding related to the school system’s purchasing procedure. According to the report, a sample bid was written to specify a particular brand for a truck, which state purchasing rules prohibit; Hale said the school added a checklist item forbidding brand-specific requests to prevent recurrence. “By adding that, they’ll avoid this any possibility of this going forward,” she told the committee.

Hale also noted there were no findings on federally awarded grants and that the school system provided a corrective action plan attached to the audit packet. County audit staff recommended, as a best practice, consideration of a centralized accounting, budgeting and purchasing system to reduce duplicate processes between county and school finance operations; Hale said that is a recommendation rather than a requirement.

The auditors and finance staff invited further questions; commissioners asked about audit sampling and the degree of testing. Hale and the state auditors said the audit used sampling and targeted testing of invoices, time sheets and other documentation rather than an exhaustive line‑by‑line review.

Next steps: the audit is posted online and the school’s corrective action plan is on file; auditors said they were available to answer specific follow‑up questions.