On February 25th, the Board of Supervisors voted 7-0 to move forward with creating an internal audit function for the County government. According to the County Administrator, the School Division is currently developing a scope of work for a Task Order that will create a similar function.
The Audit function will be outsourced to RSM US, LLP to administer the process. The process will be run through a County Audit Committee. The composition of this committee was not decided, but the County Administrator stated staff was considering a proposal to have a couple Supervisors, County Administrator, and Becky Forry, who is the County’s Chief Accounting Officer on the committee.
It seems the current intent is to have RSM report to the Audit Committee, which would function as other County committees operate such as the Finance Committee. The estimated total costs are included in some of the slides below. The full brief can be found here.
As it stands, it appears that the School’s internal audit function will be overseen by the School Board. This separation will be important, because the School Board is ultimately responsible for school operations, not the Board of Supervisors. While increased accountability is never a bad thing, it will be noteworthy to see which Board members are selected to serve on the Audit Committee and how the Board prioritizes the areas of concern RSM identifies. The costs could be a larger factor in future budgets if the specific task orders to RSM grow, but currently the County is estimated to spend $115,000 in FY20 and $177,000 in FY21. It is currently unknown how much the School internal audit function will cost.
