External auditors issue clean opinion on Garland's 2025 financials; two improvement recommendations

Weaver audit partner Sarah Dempsey reported that Weaver issued an unmodified opinion on the City of Garland’s fiscal 2025 financial statements and on federal ARPA awards, telling the Audit Committee the results were "a clean opinion" with "no material weaknesses" and "no significant deficiencies" identified.

Dempsey said the firm tested revenue recognition, grant revenues (including ARPA), utilities, procurement, payroll and unrecorded liabilities, and performed journal-entry testing for management override risk. "We have an unmodified opinion on your financial statements," she said. She noted the audit identified two recommendations that are not classified as material weaknesses: one isolated control issue in a police communications overtime approval module and additional refinements related to the city's recent Workday ERP implementation.

Audit Director Jed Wilk and city staff credited finance and internal audit for facilitating a timely audit. Wilk said the department has "worked extremely diligently to get this audit done," and praised staff for the lack of audit adjustments. Committee members asked about a new GASB pronouncement (GASB 101) that increased the city's recorded compensated-absence liability by about $2,000,000; Dempsey and staff said the change is a recording adjustment and small relative to the city's total long-term liabilities (which staff described as over $1 billion).

The committee recorded no disagreements with auditors and accepted Weaver's recommendations for management action plans and follow-up. The presentation closed with auditors and staff outlining next steps for implementing recommended refinements to internal controls and reconciling Workday processes.