KENTUCKY — This week’s “In Focus Kentucky” program features a one-on-one interview with Kentucky State Auditor of Public Accounts Allison Ball, R-Ky, of Prestonsburg.
During this segment, Auditor Ball discusses how her office found $500 million in financial reporting errors as part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s annual Statewide Single Audit for Fiscal Year 2024.
This report examined more than $22 billion in state and federal funds allocated to 370 federal programs managed by 35 different state entities, excluding state universities and retirement systems.
“I believe some of it is human error. So it’s computer-related, but all of these were errors, which is why you need second eyes to ensure you’re catching them and doing them correctly. Sometimes it’s internal controls, which happened in a few of these cases where you simply don’t have the right controls in place to detect it internally.
When we find that, we say, “Okay, this was the breakdown, and here’s how you fix it.” So we not only identify the important problems, but we also identify how we got there, so that those things can be corrected and avoided,” Ball explained.
The auditor’s office identified ten areas for improvement, known as findings, in the SSWAK Volume I for Fiscal Year 2024, and the auditor reports that “integrity in the Commonwealth’s financial statements is potentially compromised due to these findings.”
The full audit, including management’s responses to each finding and accompanying recommendations, can be found here.
Volume II of the SSWAK, which covers Kentucky’s reporting compliance with each major federal program and the associated internal controls, will be available in the coming weeks.
