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Tulare County audit panel selects District Attorney payroll and solid waste cash receipts for FY2027 audits
Summary
The Tulare County Audit Committee voted unanimously to add audits of the District Attorney's payroll and solid waste cash receipts to its FY2027 plan, citing risk-assessment results and cash-handling concerns. Staff said the office is fully staffed and budgeted about 3,330 audit hours.
The Tulare County Audit Committee voted unanimously at its meeting to approve two audits for the fiscal year 2027 plan: an audit of the District Attorney’s payroll and an audit of solid waste cash receipts.
The decision followed a presentation by the county’s audit staff, who said the office is fully staffed with seven positions, including six auditors, and has budgeted roughly 3,330 hours specific to internal audits for the year. “We’re budgeting about 3330 hours specific for internal audits this year,” the staff member presenting the plan said.
Why it matters: committee members cited both the size and risk profile of the candidate areas. The presenter told the committee the selection comes from a risk-assessment process that accounts for prior audit timing, survey responses, payroll complexity, cash receipts volume and turnover. The presenter outlined four proposed engagements and estimated hours: the District Attorney payroll (about 325 hours), solid waste cash receipts (about 300 hours), RMA fee-generated revenue and cash disbursements (about 475 hours), and public defender cash disbursements (about 325 hours).
During discussion, a committee member urged selecting solid waste in part because it operates multiple sites and because prior cash-handling reviews “have shown several shortages and overages,” the staff member said when explaining why cash receipts were scored highly. Committee members also asked about department head transition reviews and staff capacity; the presenter said those reviews typically take about 10–15 hours each and that the office had budgeted buffers to allow two additional engagements.
A motion to approve the District Attorney payroll audit and the solid waste cash receipts audit was made and seconded; the committee voted aye and the motion passed unanimously.
The committee’s approval sets those two audits as priorities for FY2027; staff indicated timing estimates for ongoing engagements (for example, about 125 hours remain on the countywide credit card audit, targeted for completion by the end of the month) and a target completion date of Oct. 31 for the HHSA cash disbursements audit.
Next steps: staff will incorporate the two selected engagements into the annual audit plan and schedule fieldwork and testing according to available hours and staffing.
