State auditors report 2018 findings

The 2018 county audit exit conference was Monday at the commissioners work session.

The purpose of an exit conference is to communicate audit results to management and obtain management’s comments on proposed findings and recommendations before the draft audit reports are issued.

Audit Manager for Team Pullman, Alisha Shaw, and supervisor for the audit, Molly Mors, from the state auditor’s staff, presented the exit conference.

This audit is of the financial statements and federal grant compliances for 2018.

“Any errors that we identified in this process were not material,” Shaw said.

In summary, Shaw explained, that there were no reports on any financial statement findings or federal award findings.

At the entrance conference it was estimated the audit would cost $43,000. The actual audit cost came out to be $40,000.

“The county omitted a capital lease disclosure of $1.2 million,” Mors said. “This was on the debt schedule, so it wasn’t missing entirely, but it should also be disclosed in the notes and provide more detail.”

Mors said they identified less significant errors, but these were fixed by management throughout the audit.

Highlights from this audit had high praises for county staff members.

“We appreciate how professional the staff was during the audit process,” Shaw said. “They were very efficient to work with. We appreciate the timely responses to the audit, the staff, the auditor’s office and public works department.”

The next audit scheduled for the county will be conducted in 2020. This audit will cover accountability for public resources for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, financial statement for the 2019 fiscal year and federal programs for the 2019 fiscal year.

Estimated costs for next year’s audit is approximately $113,000. This number is not a guarantee but is provided as a budgeting tool.