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Auditors report clean single-audit opinions for Metro; GASB change adds compensated-absence liability
Summary
External auditors told the Audit Committee they issued unmodified opinions on Metro's financial statements and six major federal programs and found no material weaknesses; they noted a GASB accounting change will add a compensated-absences liability (reported roughly $26 million) but said this reflects a change in accounting rather than an audit error.
Mark England, the audit manager overseeing the government audit for Crossland, told the Audit Committee that auditors finished the fiscal-year single audit on schedule and issued unmodified opinions on the financial statements and on all six major federal programs.
"We performed our audit in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and the Uniform Guidance," England said during the committee meeting, adding that auditors engaged in fraud-risk procedures ‘‘but did not find anything’’ that required a report to the committee.
The auditors described one management-letter recommendation related to internal controls over bank reconciliations; management told the committee it expects the Oracle Cloud implementation and assigned staff hours to address the timing and review issues. The committee voted to accept the single-audit report and to accept the letter of recommendations.
Audit staff also explained how recent Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) guidance will affect Metro's financial statements. The auditors said GASB implementation requires recording compensated absences such as accrued sick pay on the balance sheet; the change results in a restatement of net position they estimated at roughly $26 million. Audit staff emphasized this was a change in accounting policy, not an error in prior years' statements.
Auditors reported Metro included $383 million of federal expenditures on the schedule (with component units such as MDHA, NES and the airport carved out and audited separately), and audited a 20% sample as the entity was rated low risk. State awards totaled $70 million during the fiscal year and were included in the single-audit reporting.
Committee members and staff praised the audit team's work and noted completion by Dec. 31 was the earliest finish in several years. The acceptance motions passed without roll-call tallies recorded in the transcript; members indicated assent by voice vote.
