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City accepts 2024 audit; auditors report clean opinion and three control items
Summary
Auditors issued an unmodified (clean) opinion for New Prague’s 2024 financial statements, presented three findings (golf-course cash‑receipts oversight, capital-project cost allocation, and PAR enrollment records), and council voted to accept the audit as amended.
New Prague — Auditors delivered the city’s 2024 financial audit to the City Council on April 21 and issued an unmodified (clean) opinion while identifying three control findings and several items for follow-up.
Abby, representing the audit team, told the council, "We issued an unmodified or clean opinion again for 2024," and said auditors performed Minnesota legal compliance tests (collateral coverage, contracting and bidding, timing of payments) and found no noncompliance in those areas.
The audit report included three findings: limited segregation of duties (with remaining exposure in golf‑course cash receipts), a capital‑project posting issue where a 2025 street project was recorded into a single fund instead of split into water/sewer/storm components (the auditors assisted with a correcting entry), and temporary PAR enrollment discrepancies (employees marked active after termination that were subsequently corrected). Abby told the council the PAR enrollment items had been cleaned up between December and February and that the remaining golf‑course control item relates to oversight and reconciliation procedures.
On budget results, auditors said overall revenues exceeded the budget by about $484,000, driven by higher building‑permit receipts, higher interest earnings and some grants. Expenditures were broadly in line with budget; an insurance recovery for hail also affected the year‑end picture and contributed to a $630,000 reserve increase from 2023 to 2024. Abby recommended continued monitoring of enterprise funds (noting sewer debt coverage decreased to roughly 85 percent) and a 2025 rate study for sewer rates.
Council discussion focused on debt levels, the long‑term debt per capita comparison to peer cities, and the capital‑planning approach that keeps the city issuing annual bonds to smooth project costs. Abby and council members discussed that New Prague’s higher long‑term debt per capita reflects an infrastructure‑forward approach and steady annual bonding rather than irregular large bond issuances.
After Q&A, Councilmember Maggie moved to accept the audit report "as amended" with the updated pages included in the packet; Councilmember Rick seconded. The motion passed by voice vote.
What’s next: Staff and auditors will follow up on the remaining control items (golf course cash‑receipt oversight and periodic PAR reconciliations). The council noted a planned sewer rate study in 2025 to address coverage concerns raised in the audit.
