Calvert County audit: clean opinion, planned drawdown of reserves falls to $1.7M

Auditors told the Board of County Commissioners that Calvert County received an unmodified, or "clean," opinion on its fiscal year 2024 financial statements.

"We've issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements," auditor Chris Lehman said during the presentation, noting the firm had no fraud findings and had cleared the material weakness that delayed last year's audit. Finance staff framed the financial outcome as a substantial improvement from projections: senior advisor Beth Richmond said the board's originally projected use of fund balance — $18.6 million — was reduced to roughly $1.7 million by year-end after spending ran about $27.5 million under budget and revenues remained lower than anticipated.

The presentation explained the county also met requirements for the federally mandated single audit (for entities that spend more than $750,000 in federal funds) and that no single-audit findings had been identified at the time of the briefing. Finance Director Bruce Miller and his team emphasized operational changes that shortened the audit issuance timeline this year: "This team turned around and did a remarkable job getting out the fiscal year 24 audit within four months," Miller said, thanking staff for extra work following earlier delays.

Commissioners asked follow-up questions about last year's delays, and the auditors said turnover, a new accounting system and reliance on an additional accounting firm to help close the books contributed to the schedule slip. The auditors described the FY24 audit as showing the county’s control environment and key financial processes were designed and operating effectively. The board took no formal action other than to accept the presentation; staff will post the audit and supporting materials on the county website.