Preliminary Follow-up: Salt Lake County Animal Services
AUDITOR'S LETTER
JANUARY 28, 2025
In keeping with generally accepted government auditing standards and Auditor's Office policy, as authorized by Utah Code Title 17, Chapter 19a, "County Auditor," Part 2, "Powers and Duties.", we have a responsibility to monitor and follow up on audit recommendations to ensure county agencies address audit findings through appropriate corrective action and to aid us in planning future audits.
This letter serves as the follow-up audit report for the Animal Services Audit. The original audit report was issued in January 2023. The original audit report identified 6 findings with 11 recommendations. On January 6, 2023, Animal Services submitted their management responses and action plans for each recommendation and agreed to implement all of them. Since the preliminary follow-up, Animal Services has fully implemented 10 of the 11 recommendations, and 1 recommendation was not implemented.
In this follow-up, we found that one recommendation under the sixth finding regarding the development of a written Accounts Receivable policy was not implemented as initially agreed upon. Management later decided not to move forward with this recommendation, explaining that an "internal policy with more restrictions would not be enforceable and would conflict with their goal of fostering strong, long-term relationships with their service areas." However, without a formal policy in place, there is a risk that entities could owe Salt Lake County money without clear guidelines for ensuring timely and consistent payment, potentially shifting the financial burden onto county taxpayers.
We commend Animal Services management for their work in implementing our recommendations for developing written policies and procedures, separating the General Fund expenses from the Public Works and Other Services Enterprise Fund, and establishing a capital projects fund. For the outstanding recommendation, the onus is now on management and those charged with governance to mitigate the associated risks. No further follow-up work will be performed by our office.
We performed this audit in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
We appreciate the cooperation and assistance provided by all county stakeholders during this audit. Please review the enclosed audit report for detailed findings and recommendations, and feel free to contact me at 385-468-7200 with any questions.
Chris Harding, CPA, CFE, CIA
Salt Lake County Auditor
