Olympia receives clean audit, minor reporting issues noted 

State auditors gave the City of Olympia 2024 financial statements a clean audit, issuing an unmodified opinion with only two issues noted.  

The audit, which wrapped up last week and was presented at the Olympia Finance Committee meeting on Monday, Aug. 18, covered the city's annual financial report and a federally required "single audit" of grant spending in January to December 2024.  

According to Kensey Wang, General Accounting Manager and one of the main audit liaisons with the Office of the Washington State Auditor, the city received an unmodified opinion, meaning its financial statements were fairly stated.  

However, Wang noted Olympia received a management letter item on the financial statements.

"It was largely due to a very late invoice. It was for the prior year, but we had it recorded in the current year," Wang said.

Wang said a management letter is a note from auditors pointing out issues that are not serious enough to affect the city's financial statements, but still need to be addressed by city management.  

In addition to reviewing the city's main financial statements, the audit also includes what is known as a "single audit" — a review of how Olympia manages federal funds.  

The single audit is required for any entity that spends more than $750,000 in federal money in a year, a threshold Olympia regularly exceeds due to its level of federal funding.  

This year, about $2.3 million in federal expenditures were reviewed, including major programs like Community Development Block Grants and American Rescue Plan Act funds.  

The city received a finding related to subrecipient monitoring. Wang said there was no compliance violation or misappropriation of funds.

"The money was spent fine. No issues there, but the proper procedures were not in place to ensure that everything was fine," Wang said. 

She added the two findings were not financial in nature, as it is more on the program or grant management side.  

City Manager Jay Burney said the audit finding was a reporting issue involving additional documentation needed from organizations that received federal funds from Olympia.   

"It's a reporting issue. There's some additional reporting we needed to have from our sub recipients that got some of our funds, which we need to do differently. We're going to close that loop and make sure that happens in the future," Burney said.

Finance Director Michael Githens said the city is putting plans in place to address the management letter and improve grant reporting and subrecipient monitoring. He said staff are taking a proactive approach to avoid similar findings in the future and are committed to making necessary changes to strengthen financial oversight. 

The full audit report is available to the public on the state auditor's website.