Audit committee recommends external audit contract, asks commissioners to consider $370,000 audit budget

At a Friday special meeting, the county audit committee voted to recommend that the full Board of Commissioners approve a three-year master services agreement (MSA) for external internal-audit services and voted to recommend a revised FY27 audit budget of $370,000 to support contracted audits and related capacity needs.

The recommendation on the contract followed a presentation by county staff, who said the MSA will serve as an umbrella agreement while specific audit scopes and costs will return to the committee for approval. The presenter told the committee the near-term work through the end of the current fiscal year includes an audit risk assessment, an audit plan kickoff and initial fraud-hotline coverage, with about $40,000 anticipated to cover those items through June.

Why it matters: The committee’s actions move the county from an in-house internal-audit model toward a contracted arrangement intended to deliver three to four scheduled audits annually. Committee members pressed staff on how the county will provide capacity and oversight — who answers audit requests, who manages the contract day-to-day, and how fraud reports will be triaged.

Committee discussion and decisions
The presenter described the proposed FY27 contract budget as roughly $320,000 in baseline contract capacity — approximately $200,000 for scheduled audits, $80,000 as a placeholder for more complex/forensic audits, and $5,000 per investigation as a quoted minimum for initial fraud investigations. The committee raised concerns that, without sufficient county staff support, an externally contracted auditor may not be able to complete multiple planned audits in a single year.

Multiple members said some audit tasks will require departmental participation to provide records, interviews and subject-matter context. Staff proposed that the finance office serve as the contract and project manager for the audit engagement, responsible for scheduling, stakeholder coordination and monitoring contractor performance, while legal and risk would track and implement corrective-action items from audits.

Fraud-hotline intake and investigations
Committee members and staff discussed whether the fraud-hotline intake should remain a county-managed function and whether investigations should be handled by the contracted firm. Staff said the county will maintain intake and build out the process; the contracted firm (identified in the discussion as Cherry Becker) would carry investigations when escalation is warranted, with an initial-investigation quote of $5,000 per case quoted by the firm.

Origami ERM module and revised budget request
Kelly, a county staff member, told the committee the county has a quoted cost for an enterprise-risk-management (ERM) module for the Origami software: $44,688 first-year implementation and $28,750 annual thereafter. After discussion about capacity and prioritization, members proposed increasing their recommended FY27 audit budget from $320,000 to $370,000, with the additional amount tagged to support the Origami ERM module or similar capacity needs. A motion to recommend the $370,000 figure was made, seconded and approved by verbal assent.

Formal actions
The committee recorded two formal recommendations to the Board of Commissioners: (1) to authorize the county manager to sign the master services agreement once legal and contract review are complete; and (2) to include the audit committee’s $370,000 request in the FY27 budget process. The committee did not record a roll-call vote in the transcript; decisions were captured as verbal assent during the meeting.

What’s next
Staff said they will present the MSA and the committee’s annual audit-committee report to the full Board of Commissioners next Thursday and ask the board to authorize the county manager to sign the contracts once final review is complete. Staff will return to the audit committee with specific scopes and not-to-exceed amounts for individual audits as those are developed.

At the end of the meeting staff said Kelly will serve as co‑secretary while the presenter is absent in April and that minutes will be circulated for approval at the next regular meeting.