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Auditors report general ledger 'clean' in sample; trustees press for full invoice access
Summary
District auditors told the board their expanded interim procedures found no reportable findings in sampled items and that the ledger looked clean as of Dec. 31, 2025; trustees pressed administration for full invoice and signature records, and the superintendent agreed to provide a monthly report of expenditures under $90,000 with the option to drill down to individual invoices.
Adam Saperk, a partner with auditors Anderson Smith Wike (S8), told the Bladen County Board of Education that the auditors expanded their sampling for interim compliance work—about 50% above normal testing—and that the items reviewed showed appropriate controls and no material findings. He said the firm examined bank reconciliations through February 2026 and pulled the general ledger as of Dec. 31, 2025; within the sampled set, Saperk described the ledger as "clean" and ready for the year-end financial statement audit after June 30.
Saperk explained a $800,000 balance that had appeared on the district balance sheet as "due to other governments" was state funds that required a manual wire transfer after year end; the transfer cleared the liability and reduced the district's reported cash. He also described the district27s credit-card and P-card usage, noting reconciliations and the administrative controls that should be in place for P-card programs.
Several trustees pressed for greater transparency and said they wanted to see invoices and approvals tied to superintendent sign-off. One trustee said they were requesting "every single invoice" the superintendent had approved or signed during the previous two years. Auditors and administration acknowledged that pulling all individual invoices would be time-consuming but proposed a faster alternative: finance staff can produce a query or report listing expenditures under $90,000 (the superintendent27s typical signing threshold), showing vendor, fund and amount, and then the board could request individual invoices from that list as needed.
Superintendent Deborah Atkinson said the finance team will work with the new finance officer to pull the requested reporting from July 1, 2024, to the present and will begin providing a monthly list of expenditures in the agreed range so trustees can review them regularly. Auditors offered to expand testing in July if the board wants additional assurance, noting a $30,000 fee would be required to produce a complete set of interim financial statements at a date other than year end.
The exchange left the auditors27 overall assessment intact—no findings in the sampled procedures—while creating a firm action item for administration to deliver the requested expenditure reports and for auditors and the new finance officer to support targeted follow-up testing as requested by the board.
