By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — During its meeting on June 24, the Independence Township Board of Trustees heard a presentation on its 2024 Financial Audit from Alan Panter, a Partner at Yeo & Yeo, P.C. where they were informed they had received an unmodified opinion, the highest opinion available.
“It means, first of all, the statements are formatted in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. So in other words, everything that’s supposed to be in the statements is there, and also based on the procedures that we perform, the numbers are good, so unmodified opinion is definitely what you want to see,” Panter said.
According to Panter, the audit took place in April and was issued about a week prior to the presentation on June 24, just in time for the state submission deadline which is June 30 and included an examination of the financial reporting process of internal controls of certain aspects of legal compliance.
Panter provided an overview of the audit, showing that since 2020, the township’s revenue has slowly increased over the years while expenditures saw a slight decrease in 2024 compared to 2023. The fund balance also saw an increase compared to years prior.
“The fund balance in the general fund is a healthy fund balance and it represents about 140% of annual expenditures,” said Panter.
The township also received a Single Audit, which is a federal program audit that is required when communities expend over $750,000. This year, Independence Township had about $6.2 million expended of federal awards. Yeo & Yeo selected two “major programs” for compliance testing which included Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds as well as the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs. The report showed no compliance issues.
Auditors did have a finding this year on the internal controls side of things which involved a restatement that was necessary in the Corridor Improvement Authority and Downtown Development Authority for property taxes that were not recognized last year.
“That (was) recognized this year through a prior period adjustment,” Panter said. “Also during our audit procedures, we noted an adjustment related to State Shared Revenue that was about half a million dollars of revenue that the township had not recorded. So that adjustment was noted by us, suggested and then recorded by the township, so that results in a finding there.”
The audit also included a corrective action plan for the township to follow going forward.