During a recent government meeting, Leanne Bogasala, a director at Molding and Jenkins, presented the fiscal year 2022-2023 audit report for Columbus County. The audit, which covered the period from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, revealed significant findings, including an unmodified or \"clean\" opinion on the county's financial statements, indicating they were presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

However, the audit also identified three material weaknesses in the county's internal controls. The first weakness involved the reporting of capital assets, where the county failed to properly transfer completed projects from construction in progress to capitalized assets, resulting in $22 million in audit adjustments. This issue was noted as a repeat finding from the previous year's audit.

The second finding pertained to the restatement of prior year balances, which included adjustments totaling over $19 million related to misclassified revenue and unrecorded debt obligations. The audit highlighted that the county had not accurately recorded its limited obligation bonds, leading to necessary corrections in the current audit.

The third material weakness was related to the financial close and maintenance of general ledger accounts, which also marked a repeat finding. The audit revealed numerous journal entries needed to be made to correct inaccuracies in the general ledger, primarily stemming from issues with the county's tax software.

In addition to these weaknesses, the audit report included several indicators of concern, such as a significant drop in the water and sewer capital asset condition ratio, which fell from 0.58 to 0.18, indicating that many fixed assets are nearing full depreciation. The county was also noted for submitting its audit late, with a due date of October 31, 2023, but not issued until July 31, 2024.

Despite these challenges, the audit found compliance with federal and state grant expenditures, issuing clean opinions on major programs, including Medicaid and ARPA funding. However, a significant deficiency was noted regarding the timely submission of financial information to HUD for the Section 8 program.

The audit concluded with several recommendations for the county, including increasing the capitalization threshold for assets to reduce the financial burden on the finance department, improving segregation of duties within the finance team, and establishing formal policies for change management and employee onboarding.

The county is required to respond to the local government commission within 45 days, outlining how it plans to address the identified weaknesses and concerns.