Beaufort County’s finances received a “clean” audit report for fiscal year 2019-2020.
Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams and Co. of Whiteville conducted the exam. Managing partner Alan Thompson submitted the audit report to the Beaufort County Commissioners on Monday. Thompson said there were “no material exam results”.
“As of June 30, 2020 (fiscal year-end), Beaufort County government funds reported combined final fund holdings of $ 32,402,047, an increase of $ 3,329,802 over the previous year,” the audit report said. “Approximately 37.88% of this total, or $ 12,274,602, is restricted or tied. Also as of June 30, 2020, the Unallocated Fund balance for the General Fund was $ 20,463,556, or 34.83% of the total Fund General Expenditure of $ 58,759,368 for the fiscal year. “
The county’s total debt decreased $ 3,658,720, or 6.43%. The auditors attributed this decline to planned payments for outstanding debt.
Beaufort County, which includes both government and business activities, had total sales of $ 79,785,746 and expenses of $ 74,471,671.
The county’s net position – the amount by which its assets and deferred cash outflows exceeded its liabilities and deferred cash inflows – was $ 65,136,398.
Total general fund revenues for the 2019-20 period were $ 62,547,886, $ 481,263 more than planned. The main contributor was ad valorem taxes ($ 37,158,836, $ 397,760 more than final budget), followed by restricted intergovernmental funding ($ 10,753,803, $ 943,538 less than planned) and sales tax ($ 10,232,655, $ 745,759 more than final budget).
Fund general spending was $ 57,018,008, which is $ 2,886,406 less than the county estimate. The highest spending was on Education ($ 18,839,953, $ 12,600 below budget), Human Services ($ 15,257,067, which is $ 792,691 below budget), and Public Safety ($ 12,860,884, which is $ 490,280 below corresponds to the budget).
The audit report contains two findings about Medicaid. The first finding has to do with the county’s system for determining eligibility for Medicaid.
“In our procedures, 14 errors were found in which inaccurate information was entered when determining the authorization,” says the examination document. “Of these, one beneficiary received support from the wrong program class because the file was not checked in a timely manner.”
The Beaufort County Department of Social Services can work with childcare agencies to obtain financial or medical assistance payments from a child’s non-caring parents. In the second finding, the auditors said they discovered two errors where referrals between DSS and the childcare agencies were not properly made. In either case, these errors did not affect Medicaid eligibility.
The reviewers worked with all stakeholders to develop correction procedures for both results.
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