Harrison County auditor presents clean 2024 audit; fund balance up about $750,000

Harrison County’s outside audit firm presented a clean, unmodified opinion for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2024, and highlighted improved fund balances and internal‑control recommendations.

Jacob Bowman, an audit supervisor with Patillo, Brown & Hill, told the commissioners the firm issued an unmodified (clean) opinion and found no reportable findings in the audits of federal and state grants the firm tested, including ARPA and a juvenile confinement grant. "Unmodified opinion. Once again, clean opinion," Bowman said.

Bowman summarized financial highlights in the audit report: the general fund balance approached $18,000,000 as of Sept. 30, 2024, an increase of about $750,000 from the prior year, and approximately $12.5 million of that was unassigned (about 39% of annual expenditures). He noted that those reserve levels compare favorably to guidelines that recommend 25–50% of annual expenditures.

The auditor emphasized internal controls and separation of duties as areas to monitor to reduce the risk of misstatement or fraud. "As much formal approval, signatures, things like that, is helpful to us auditors because it means multiple eyes have looked on this," Bowman said.

Commissioners had no substantive audit findings to address in the meeting; Bowman also outlined the scope of the single‑audit procedures that review large federal awards.

The audit presentation was an informational item; no separate vote was required beyond routine acceptance of reports on the agenda.