North Little Rock receives unmodified FY2024 audit; two reporting findings noted

The North Little Rock City Council received a presentation Wednesday evening on the city's fiscal year 2024 audit, which auditors described as a clean, unmodified opinion.

"I'm happy to be here tonight to go over the fiscal year 20 24 audit results," Rachel Ormsby, the audit partner with Forbus Mazar, told the council as she summarized the nearly 200-page financial report. Ormsby said the city met the regulatory filing deadline window and that the audit would be submitted to the Governmental Audit Clearinghouse and other agencies ahead of the June 30 deadline.

The audit highlights included an increase in the general fund balance of about $7,500,000, Ormsby said; she attributed a large portion of that increase to FEMA reimbursements for road work that the city received while finalizing the audit. Ormsby called the unmodified opinion "the highest level of assurance" for a governmental entity.

Amber, the city's chief financial officer, told the council the management's discussion and analysis (MD&A) in the report is the best single place to review major events and that sections covering pages 4 through 11 provide a concise overview.

The auditors also completed the single-audit work required when a government spends more than $750,000 in federal funds. Four federal programs were included in that compliance review: the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), the Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG), the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), and the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF). Ormsby said the city received clean compliance opinions for those programs but that the audit identified two required reports that were not submitted on the specified forms during the fiscal year.

"There were reports that were required to be submitted that weren't, but we believe the granting agencies had all the information they needed," Ormsby said. City staff characterized the findings as nonmaterial: the information was provided to grantors through other reports, but the specific forms required by the grant agreements were not filed in two cases (a CDBG subrecipient report and an airport quarterly financial report).

Amber said the city has implemented additional checks and balances and that she had written to the granting agencies explaining the corrective steps.

Council member Robinson requested a technical correction in the audit document: references to the council title that still read "alderman" should be updated to "council member" to reflect a statutory name change. The council agreed that staff should correct the label in the published report.

The council accepted the audit presentation and staff said the city will file the finalized documents with appropriate agencies and submit the packet to the Government Finance Officers Association for the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting.