County auditor reports unmodified FY24 opinion; general fund up about $227,000

An external auditor reported to the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors that the county's FY24 financial statements received unmodified opinions and that there were no material weaknesses identified.

The auditor said the general fund increased by about $227,000 in FY24 and that the unassigned general-fund balance totaled roughly $5,300,000, or about 23% of annual general-fund expenditures, which the auditor noted would cover roughly three months of spending. The presenter also said the county's ARPA fund showed about $2,500,000 unspent at the end of FY24 and that the EMS fund had a $78,000 decrease that was largely offset by a $1,200,000 transfer from the general fund. "We expressed unmodified opinions on the financial statements," the auditor said.

The auditor described the scope of the engagement as a financial-statement audit and a federal-award compliance report performed under generally accepted auditing standards, the Yellow Book, and APA specifications. The presentation included cautions about a new FY25 standard related to compensated absences and flagged several management-letter recommendations, including tighter reconciliation of state and federal revenues and improved vendor-file change logs. The board did not take formal action on the audit during the meeting; staff were left with the governance letter and adjusted audit schedules to implement the recommendations.