Loading...
2009 City Records Audit ~, -, CDentceopy -) Patricia L. Webb, CPA Audrey M. Odermann, CPA LOWENTHAL, WEBB & ODERMANN, P.A. 900 Massachusetts, Suite 301 Lawrence, Kansas 66044-2868 Phone: (785) 749-5050 Fax: (785) 749-5061 Website: www.lswwcpa.com Abram M. Chrislip, CPA Caroline H. Eddinger, CPA Grant A. Huddin, CPA Brian W. Nyp, CPA CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS Members of American Institute and Kansas Society of Certified Public Accountants December 11, 2009 City Commission City of Salina 300 West Ash Street Salina, KS 67402 We are pleased to confirm our understanding of the services we are to provide the City of Salina, Kansas, (the City) for the year ended December 31, 2009. We will audit the financial statements of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, each major fund, budgetary comparison schedules and the aggregate remaining fund information, which collectively comprise the basic financial statements of the City as of and for the year ended December 31, 2009, with the exception of the discretely presented component units which will be audited by other auditors. Accounting standards generally accepted in the United States of America provide for certain required supplementary information (RSI), such as management dis~ussion and analysis (MD&A), to accompany the City's basic financial statements. As part of our engagement, we will apply certain limited procedures to the City's RSI. These limited procedures will consist principally of inquiries of management regarding the methods of measurement and presentation, which management is responsible for affirming to us its representation letter. Unless we encounter problems with the presentation of the RSI or with procedures relating to it, we will disclaim an opinion on it. The following RSI is required by generally accepted accounting principles and will be subjected to certain limited procedures, but will not be audited: management's discussion and analysis and OPES information. Supplementary information other than RSI, such as combining and individual fund financial statements, also accompanies the City's basic financial statements. We will subject the following supplementary information to the auditing procedures applied in our audit of the basic financial statements and will provide an opinion on them in relation to the basic financial statements: combining statements, individual fund statements, the schedule of expenditures of federal awards and supporting schedules. The following additional information accompanying the basic financial statements will not be subjected to the auditing procedures applied in our audit of the financial statements and for which our auditor's report will disclaim an opinion: introductory and statistical sections. Audit Objectives The objective of our audit is the expression of opinions as to whether your basic financial statements are fairly presented, in all material respects, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and to report on the fairness of the supplementary information referred to above when considered in relation to the basic financial statements taken as a whole. , t The objectives also include reporting on: 1. Internal control related to the financial statements and compliance with the provisions of applicable laws, regulations, contracts, agreements, and grants, noncompliance with which could have a material effect on the financial statements in accordance with Government Auditing Standards. 2. Internal control related to major programs and an opinion (or disclaimer of opinion) on compliance with laws, regulations, and the provisions of contracts or grant agreements that could have a direct and material effect on each major program in accordance with the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996 and OMS Circular A-133, Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations. The reports on internal control and compliance will each include a statement that the report is intended for the information and use of the audit committee, management, the body or individuals charged with governance, specific legislative or regulatory bodies, federal awarding agencies, and if applicable, pass-through entities and is not intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than these specified parties. Our audit will be conducted in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America, the standards for financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States; the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996; and the provisions of OMS Circular A-133; and the Kansas Municipal Audit Guide and will include tests of the accounting records, a determination of major program(s) in accordance with OMS Circular A-133, and other procedures we consider necessary to enable us to express such opinions and to render the required reports. If our opinions on the financial statements or the Single Audit compliance opinions are other than unqualified, we will fully discuss the reasons with you in advance. If for any reason, we are unable to complete the audit or are unable to form or have not formed opinions, we may decline to express opinions or to issue a report as a result of this engagement. Management Responsibilities Management is responsible for the basic financial statements and all accompanying information as well as all representations contained therein. Management is also responsible for preparation of the schedule of expenditures of federal awards in accordance with the requirements of OMS Circular A-133. You are responsible for making all management decisions and performing all management functions relating to the financial statements, schedule of expenditures of federal awards, and related notes and for accepting full responsibility for such decisions. Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal controls, including internal controls over compliance, and for monitoring ongoing activities; to help ensure that appropriate goals and objectives are met. You are also responsible for the selection and application of accounting principles; and for the fair presentation in the financial statements of the respective financial position of th~ governmental activities, the business-type activities, the aggregate discretely presented component units, each major fund, budgetary comparison schedules and the aggregate remaining fund information of the City and the respective changes in financial position and where applicable, cash flows, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; and for federal award program compliance with applicable laws and regulations and the provisions of contracts and grant agreements. Management is responsible for making all financial record and related information available to us and for ensuring that management and financial information is reliable and properly recorded. Your responsibilities also include, identifying significant vendor relationships in which the vendor has responsibility for program compliance and for the accuracy and completeness of that information. Management is responsible for adjusting the financial statements to correct material misstatements and for confirming to us in the representation letter that the effects of any uncorrected misstatements aggregated by us during the current engagement and pertaining to the latest period presented are immaterial, both individually and in the aggregate, to the financial statements taken as a whole. G:\clients\3 digit cJients\709 - Salina, City 0112009\709 engagement letter 09.docx , . You are responsible for the design and implementation of programs and controls to prevent and detect fraud, and for informing us about all known or suspected fraud and illegal acts affecting the government involving (1) management, (2) employees who have significant roles in internal control, and (3) others where the fraud and illegal acts could have a material effect on the financial statements. Your responsibilities include informing us of your knowledge of any allegations of fraud or suspected fraud affecting the government received in communications from employees, former employees, grantors, regulators, or others. In addition, you are responsible for identifying and ensuring that the entity complies with applicable laws, contracts, agreements, grants and regulations. Additionally, as required by OMB Circular A-133, it is management's responsibility to follow up and take corrective action on reported audit findings and to prepare a summary schedule of prior audit findings and a corrective action plan, if required. Management is responsible for establishment and maintenance of a process for tracking the status of audit findings and recommendations. Management is also responsible for identifying for us previous financial audits, attestation engagements, performance audits, or other studies related to the objectives discussed in the Audit Objectives section of this letter. This responsibility includes relaying to us corrective actions taken to address significant findings and recommendations resulting from those audits, attestation engagements, performance audits, or other studies. You are also responsible for providing management's views on our current findings, conclusions, and recommendations, as well as your planned corrective actions, for the report, and for the timing and format for providing that information. With regards to the electronic dissemination of audited financial statements, including financial statements published electronically on your website (if any), you understand that electronic sites are a means to distribute information and, therefore, we are not required to read the information contained in these sites or to consider the consistency of other information in the electronic site with the original document. Audit Procedures-General An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements; therefore, our audit will involve judgment about the number of transactions to be examined and the areas to be tested. We will plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable rather than absolute assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether from (1) errors, (2) fraudulent financial reporting, (3) misappropriation of assets, or (4) violations of laws and governmental regulations that are attributable to the entity or to acts by management or employees acting on behalf of the entity. Because the determination of abuse is subjective, Government Auditing Standards do not expect auditors to provide reasonable assurance of detecting abuse. Because an audit is designed to provide reasonable, but not absolute, assurance and because we will not perform a detailed examination of all transactions, there is a risk that material misstatements or noncompliance may exist and not be detected by us. In addition, an audit is not designed to detect immaterial misstatements, or violations of laws or governmental regulations that do not have a direct and material effect on the financial statements or major programs. However, we will inform the appropriate level of management of any material errors and any fraudulent financial reporting or misappropriation of assets that come to our attention. We will also inform the appropriate level of management of any violations of laws or governmental regulations that come to our attention, unless clearly inconsequential. We will include such matters in the reports required for a Single Audit. Our responsibility as auditors is limited to the period covered by our audit and does not extend to any later periods for which we are not engaged as auditors. Our procedures will include tests of documentary evidence supporting the transactions recorded in the accounts, and may include tests of the physical existence of inventories, and direct confirmation of receivables and certain other assets and liabilities by correspondence with selected individuals, funding sources, creditors, and financial institutions. We will request written representations from your attorneys as part of the engagement, and they may bill you for responding to this inquiry. At the conclusion of our audit, we will also require certain written representations from you about the financial statements and related matters. G:\clients\3 digit c1ients\709 - Salina, City 01\2009\709 engagement letter 09.docx Audit Procedures-Internal Control Our audit will include obtaining an understanding of the entity and its environment, including internal control, sufficient to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements and to design the nature, timing, and extent of further audit procedures. Tests of controls may be performed to test the effectiveness of certain controls that we consider relevant to preventing and detecting errors and fraud that are material to the financial statements and to preventing and detecting misstatements resulting from illegal acts and other noncompliance matters that have a direct and material effect on the financial statements. Our tests, if performed, will be less in scope than would be necessary to render an opinion on internal control and, accordingly, no opinion will be expressed in our report on internal control issued pursuant to Government Auditing Standards. As required by OMS Circular A-133, we will perform tests of controls over compliance to evaluate the effectiveness of the design and operation of controls that we consider relevant to preventing or detecting material noncompliance with compliance requirements applicable to each major federal award program. However, our tests will be less in scope than would be necessary to render an opinion on those controls and, accordingly, no opinion will be expressed in our report on internal control issued pursuant to OMS Circular A-133. An audit is not designed to provide assurance on internal control or to identify significant deficiencies. However, during the audit, we will communicate to management and those charged with governance internal control related matters that are required to be communicated under AICPA professional standards, Government Auditing Standards and OMS Circular A-133. Audit Procedures-Compliance As part of obtaining reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, we will perform tests of the City's compliance' with applicable laws and regulations and the provisions of contracts and agreements, including grant agreements. However, the objective of our audit will not be to provide an opinion on overall compliance and we will not express such an opinion in our report on compliance issued pursuant to Government Auditing Standards. OMS Circular A-133 requires that we also plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the auditee has complied with applicable laws and regulations and the provisions of contracts and grant agreements applicable to major programs. Our procedures will consist of test of transactions and other applicable procedures described in the OMS Circular A-133 Compliance Supplement for the types of compliance requirements that could have a direct and material effect on each of the City's major programs. The purpose of those procedures will be to express an opinion on the City's compliance with requirements applicable to each of its major programs in our report on compliance issued pursuant to OMS Circular A-133. Audit Administration, Fees and Other When delivered to the City, the audit reports and financial statements produced in connection with this engagement letter are public records and may be used (a) to fulfill the requirements of continuing disclosure under SEC Rule 15c2-12, (b) as inserts or incorporated by reference in offering documents issued by the City, and (c) for any lawful purpose of the City, all without subsequent consent from us. Any official statements in connection with debt issuances which include the above mentioned audit reports and financial statements shall contain the following: "Our independent auditor has not been engaged to perform and has not performed, since the date of its report included herein, any procedures on the financial statements addressed in that report. The independent auditor also has not performed any procedures relating to this official statement." In the interest of facilitating our services to your organization, we may communicate by facsimile transmission or send electronic mail over the Internet. Such communications may include information that is confidential to your organization. Our firm employs measures in the use of facsimile machines and computer technology designed to maintain data security. While we will use our best efforts to keep such communications secure in accordance with our obligations under applicable laws and professional standards, you recognize and accept that we have no control over the unauthorized interception of these communications once they have been sent and consent to our use of these electronic devices during this engagement. We may prepare a general ledger trial balance for use during the audit. Our preparation of the trial balance will be limited to formatting information in the general ledger into a working trial balance. Our audit engagement ends on delivery of our audit report. Any follow-up services that might be required will be a separate, new engagement. The terms and conditions of that new engagement will be governed by a new, specific engagement letter for that service. G:lclients\3 digit c1ients\709 - Salina, City ofl2009\709 engagement letter 09.docx to . . ... The workpapers for this engagement are our property and constitute confidential information. However, we may be requested to make certain workpapers available to others pursuant to authority given by law, regulation or other legal process. If requested, access to such workpapers will be provided under the supervision of firm personnel. Furthermore, upon request, we may provide photocopies of selected workpapers to governmental agencies who may intend or decide to distribute the photocopies or information contained therein to others, including other governmental agencies. You agree to reimburse us for our personnel and other costs associated with our compliance with such requests. Our policy is to retain workpapers for five years after the engagement. During the term of this engagement, we agree to comply with the provisions of K.SA 44-1030. You agree that the term "those charged with governance", as used in Statement on Auditing Standards No. 114 for defining our communication responsibilities under that standard, consists of the mayor, city commission, and the city manager. It is understood that the services provided by our firm necessarily rely, to some extent, on information provided by your organization, including management representations, as well as information and documents. Accordingly, your organization indemnifies our firm and its owners and employees, and holds them harmless from all claims, liabilities, losses or costs in connection with services provided by our firm that are affected in any way by erroneous, misleading, or incomplete information furnished by your organization. This indemnification will survive any terminations under this letter. Audrey M. Odermann, CPA is the engagement partner and is responsible for supervising the engagement and signing the reports or authorizing another individual to sign them. We agree that our gross fee, including all expenses, for the above services shall not exceed $36,900, except as noted above and below. Our invoices for these fees will be rendered each month as work progresses and are payable on presentation. In accordance with our firm policies, work may be suspended if your account becomes overdue and may not be resumed until your account is paid in full. If we elect to terminate our services for nonpayment, our engagement will be deemed to have been completed upon written notification of termination, even if we have not completed our report. You will be obligated to compensate us for all time expended and to reimburse us for all out-of-pocket costs through the date of termination. The above fee is based on anticipated cooperation from your personnel and the assumption that unexpected circumstances will not be encountered during the audit, including. delays resulting from the untimely delivery of and incomplete preparation of schedules and questionnaires we have requested from your staff. If significant additional time is necessary, we will discuss it with you and arrive at a new fee estimate before we incur the additional costs. Government Auditing Standards require that we provide you with a copy of our most recent external peer review report. Our 2006 peer review report accompanies this letter. We appreciate the opportunity to be of service to the City of Salina, Kansas and believe this letter accurately summarized the significant terms of our engagement. If you have any questions, please let us know. If you agree with the terms of our engagement as described in this letter, please sign the enclosed copy and return it to us. Very truly yours, LOWENTHAL, WEBB & ODERMANN, PA Certified Public Accountants By C'~q- ()~ Audrey M. Ode}mann, CPA RESPONSE: the understanding of the City of Salina, Kansas. By: Title: Date: G:\clients\3 digit dients\709 - Salina, City of\2009\709 engagement letter 09.docx r ---~- ~ stafford&westervelt Stafford & Westervelt, Chartered Certified Public Accountants Offices in Chanute, Independence, Parsons and Pittsburg, Kansas Bentonville and Rogers, Arkansas To the Shareholders Lowenthal, Singleton, Webb & Wilson Professional Association We have reviewed the system of quality control for the accounting and auditing practice of Lowenthal, Singleton, Webb & Wilson Professional Association (the firm) in effect for the year ended June 30,2006. A system of quality control encompasses the firm's organizational structure, the policies adopted and procedures established to provide it with reasonable assurance of conforming with professional standards. The elements of quality control are described in the Statements on Quality Control Standards issued by the American Institute of CP As (AICP A). The firm is responsible for designing a system of quality control and complying with it to provide the firm with reasonable assurance of conforming with professional standards in all material respects. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the design of the system of quality control and the firm's compliance with the system of quality control based on our review. Our review was conducted in accordance with standards established by the Peer Review Board of the AICP A. During our review, we read required representations from the firm, interviewed firm personnel and obtained an understanding of the nature of the firm's accounting and auditing practice, and the design of the firm's system of quality control sufficient to assess the risks implicit in its practice. Based on our assessments, we selected engagements and administrative files to test for conformity with professional standards and compliance-with the firm's system of quality control. The engagements selected represented a reasonable cross section of the firm's accounting and auditing practice with emphasis on higher-risk engagements. The engagements selected included among others, audits of Employee Benefit Plans and engagements performed under Government Auditing . Standards. Prior to concluding the review, we reassessed the adequacy of the scope of the peer review procedures and met with firm management to discuss the results of our review. We believe that the procedures we performed provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. In performing our review, we obtained an understanding of the system of quality control for the firm's accounting and auditing practice. In addition, we tested compliance with the firm's quality control policies and procedures to the extent we considered appropriate. These tests covered the application of the firm's policies and procedures on selected engagements. Our review was based on selective tests therefore it would not necessarily detect all weaknesses in the system of quality control or all instances of noncompliance with it. There are inherent limitations in the effectiveness of any system of quality control and therefore noncompliance with the system of quality control may occur and not be detected. Projection of any evaluation of a system of quality control to future periods is subject to the risk that the system of quality control may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or because the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. Members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants -<;;:J------ In our opinion, the system of quality control for the accounting and auditing practice of Lowenthal, Singleton, Webb & Wilson Professional Association in effect for the year ended June 30, 2006, has been designed to meet the requirements of the quality control standards for an accounting and auditing practice established by the AICPA and was complied with during the year then ended to provide the firm with reasonable assurance of conforming with professional standards. -:5"o/:fd +~~.~ Independence, Kansas July 7, 2006