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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTamarac - RSM Report to the Commission (2024)RSM i_Li RSM US LLP January 19, 2024 a:iCr) Kimberly Dillon, City Clerk City of Tamarac C14 City Hall, Room 101 tf., 0 7525 NW 88th Avenue Tamarac, Florida 33321= Attention: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Commission This letter is intended to communicate certain matters related to the planned scope and timing of our audit of City of Tamarac, Florida's (the City) financial statements and compliance as of and for the year ended September 30, 2023. Communication Effective two-way communication between our firm and those charged with governance is important to understanding matters related to the audit and developing a constructive working relationship. Your insights may assist us in understanding the City and its environment, identifying appropriate sources of audit evidence and providing information about specific transactions or events. We will discuss with you your oversight of the effectiveness of internal control and any areas where you request additional procedures to be undertaken. We expect that you will timely communicate to us any matters you consider relevant to the audit. Such matters might include strategic decisions that may significantly affect the nature, timing and extent of audit procedures, your suspicion or detection of fraud, or any concerns you may have about the integrity or competence of senior management. We will timely communicate to you any fraud involving senior management and other known or likely fraud, noncompliance with provisions of laws, statutes, regulations, rules, provisions of contracts or grant agreements or abuse that is likely to have a material effect on the financial statements. We will also communicate illegal acts, instances of noncompliance or fraud that come to our attention (unless they are clearly inconsequential), and disagreements with management and other serious difficulties encountered in performing the audit. We will also communicate to you and to management any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses in internal control that become known to us during the course of the audit. Additionally, we will communicate significant unusual transactions, matters that are difficult or contentious for which we consulted outside the engagement team, and circumstances that affect the form and content of the auditor's report. Other matters arising from the audit that are, in our professional judgment, significant and relevant to you in your oversight of the financial reporting process will be communicated to you in writing. Shared Responsibilities for Independence Independence is a joint responsibility and is managed most effectively when management, audit committees (or their equivalents), and audit firms work together in considering compliance with American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Government Accountability Office (GAO) independence rules. For RSM to fulfill its professional responsibility to maintain and monitor independence, management, those charged with governance, and RSM each play an important role. City of Tamarac, Florida Page 2 • AICPA and GAO rules require independence both of mind and in appearance when providing audit and other attestation services. RSM is to ensure that the AICPA and GAO's General Requirements for performing non -attest services are adhered to and included in all letters of engagement. • Maintain a system of quality management over compliance with independence rules and firm policies. • Timely inform RSM, before the effective date of transactions or other business changes, of the following: — New affiliates, directors, or officers. — Changes in the organizational structure or the reporting entity impacting affiliates such as related entities, investments, joint ventures, component units, and jointly governed organizations. • Provide necessary affiliate information such as new or updated structure charts, as well as financial information required to perform materiality calculations needed for making affiliate determinations. • Understand and conclude on the permissibility, prior to the City and its affiliates, officers, directors, or persons in a decision -making capacity, engaging in business relationships with RSM. • Not entering into arrangements of nonaudit services resulting in RSM being involved in making management decisions on behalf of the City. • Not entering into relationships resulting in close family members of RSM covered persons, temporarily or permanently acting as an officer, director, or person in an accounting, financial reporting or compliance oversight role at the City. Our Independence Policies and Procedures Our independence policies and procedures are designed to provide reasonable assurance that our firm and its personnel comply with applicable professional independence standards. Our policies address financial interests, business and family relationships, and non -audit services that may be thought to bear on independence. For example, our partners and professional employees are restricted in their ability to own a direct financial interest or a material indirect financial interest in a client or any affiliate of a client. Also, if an immediate family member or close relative of a partner or professional employee is employed by a client in a key position, the incident must be reported and resolved in accordance with firm policy. In addition, our policies prohibit us from providing certain non -attest services and require audit clients to accept certain responsibilities in connection with the provision of permitted non -attest services. City of Tamarac, Florida Page 3 The Audit Planning Process Our audit approach places a strong emphasis on obtaining an understanding of how your entity functions. This enables us to identify key audit components and tailor our procedures to the unique aspects of your operations. The development of a specific audit plan will begin by meeting with you and with management to obtain an understanding of business objectives, strategies, risks and performance. As part of obtaining an understanding of your organization and its environment, we will obtain an understanding of your system of internal control. We will use this understanding to identify risks of material misstatement and noncompliance, which will provide us with a basis for designing and implementing responses to the assessed risks of material misstatement and noncompliance. We will also obtain an understanding of the users of the financial statements in order to establish an overall materiality level for audit purposes. We will conduct formal discussions among engagement team members to consider how and where your financial statements might be susceptible to material misstatement due to fraud or error or to instances of noncompliance. Group Audit Considerations Group management (City management) is responsible for the financial statements of the City. Auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America (GARS) address the group auditor's responsibility for group financial statements including the work of component auditors. We are the group auditor. Group management has informed us that another auditor will be auditing the financial statements of the City of Tamarac Firefighters' Pension Plan (a fiduciary component unit of the City). Due to our familiarity with the component auditor, we plan to refer to the other auditor in our report on the group financial statements. We will confirm various items with the component auditor including their independence, the basis of accounting, restrictions on the use of the report and other items we deem necessary. We will review the reports provided by the component and we will communicate with City management any items that raise a concern about the quality or completeness of the component's reports. The timely completion of the group audit is dependent on group management's ability to coordinate with and facilitate our access to component management and the component auditor throughout the group audit process. The Concept of Materiality in Planning and Executing the Audit We apply the concept of materiality in both planning and performing the audit, evaluating the effect of identified misstatements or noncompliance on the audit and the effect of uncorrected misstatements, if any, on the financial statements, forming the opinion in our report on the financial statements, and determining or reporting in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and other compliance reporting requirements. Our determination of materiality is a matter of professional judgment and is affected by our perception of the financial and compliance informational needs of users of the financial statements. We establish performance materiality at an amount less than materiality for the financial statements as a whole to allow for the risk of misstatements that may not be detected by the audit. We use performance materiality for purposes of assessing the risks of material misstatement and determining the nature, timing and extent of further audit procedures. Our assessment of materiality throughout the audit will be based on both quantitative and qualitative considerations. Because of the interaction of quantitative and qualitative considerations, misstatements of a relatively small amount could have a City of Tamarac, Florida Page 4 material effect on the current financial statements as well as financial statements of future periods. We will accumulate misstatements identified during the audit, other than those that are clearly trivial. At the end of the audit, we will inform you of all individual uncorrected misstatements aggregated by us in connection with our evaluation of our audit test results. Significant Risks of Material Misstatement Our audit of the financial statements includes the performance of risk assessment procedures in order to identify risks of material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. As part of these risk assessment procedures, we determine whether any risks identified are a significant risk. A significant risk is an identified risk of material misstatement for which the assessment of inherent risk is close to the upper end of the spectrum of inherent risk due to the degree to which inherent risk factors affect the combination of the likelihood of a misstatement occurring and the magnitude of the potential misstatement should that misstatement occur, or that is to be treated as a significant risk in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. As part of our initial risk assessment procedures, we identified the following risks as significant risk. Additional significant risks may be identified as we perform additional audit procedures. Management Override Management could of Controls manipulate controls over financial reporting Revenue Recognition Revenues are improperly recognized in the financial statements Pension and Estimated liabilities are not OPEB Liabilities properly valued at year-end • Obtain an understanding and perform test of controls over significant transaction cycles, as deemed appropriate • Test journal entries for propriety and proper authorization • Understand the City's revenue recognition policy and assess its compliance with GAAP • Perform substantive test of details • Review and determine that management's methodology is properly and consistently applied • Assess the reputation and competency of the City's actuary, to place reliance on their work • Test the underlying data supporting the estimates City of Tamarac, Florida Page 5 GASB 87, Leases GASB 96, Subscription - Based Information Technology Arrangements (SBITAs) Improper application of the Assess the applicability of the GASB GASB statement statement to the City's transactions • Test for proper recognition and disclosure of applicable transactions Improper application and • Assess the applicability of the GASB implementation of the GASB statement to the City's transactions statement • Test for proper recognition and disclosure of applicable transactions Our Approach to Internal Control and Compliance Relevant to the Audit Our audit of the financial statements, including compliance, will include obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting and compliance sufficient to plan the audit and determine the nature, timing and extent of audit procedures to be performed. An audit is not designed to provide assurance on internal control over financial reporting and compliance or to identify significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. Our review and understanding of the entity's internal control over financial reporting and compliance is not undertaken for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of internal control. We will issue reports on internal control over financial reporting and compliance related to the financial statements and major programs. These reports will describe the scope of testing of internal control over financial reporting and compliance and the results of our tests of internal control over financial reporting and compliance. Our reports on internal control over financial reporting and compliance will include any significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the system of which we become aware as a result of obtaining an understanding of internal control and performing tests of internal control over financial reporting and compliance consistent with the requirements of Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States; the Single Audit Act; and Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards at 2 CFR 200 (Uniform Guidance). We will issue reports on compliance with laws, statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of federal awards. We will report on any noncompliance that could have a material effect on the financial statements and any noncompliance that could have a direct and material effect on each major program. Our reports on compliance will address material errors, fraud, violations of compliance requirements, and other responsibilities imposed by state and federal statutes and regulations and assumed contracts; and any state or federal grant, entitlement or loan program questioned costs of which we become aware, consistent with the requirements of the standards identified above. Reporting — Expected Emphasis -of -Matter Paragraph The City will adopt the recognition and disclosure requirements of GASB 96, Subscription -Based Information Technology Arrangements, effective October 1, 2022. In light of this matter, we may include an emphasis -of -matter paragraph in the auditor's report. We will provide an opportunity for you to review a draft of this paragraph prior to the issuance of our report. Timing of the Audit City of Tamarac, Florida Page 6 Preliminary audit work took place October 2023, and we have scheduled fieldwork for January through February 2024. Management's adherence to its closing schedule and timely completion of information used by us in performance of the audit is essential to timely completion of the audit. Closing We will be pleased to respond to any questions you have about the foregoing. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to be of service to the City. This communication is intended solely for the information and use of the Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Commission and is not intended to be, and should not be, used by anyone other than these specified parties. ; Rs,q us ,1.4P cc: Finance Director, Mayor, Commissioners, Clerk and City Manager