HomeMy WebLinkAboutContract 2012 2432 k HLB °RUM ES p4 Certified Public Accountants CLIENT COPY February 10, 2012 City of Columbia Heights 590 40th Avenue Northeast Columbia Heights MN 55421-3878 We are pleased to confirm our understanding of the services we are to provide the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota for the year ending December 31, 2011. The scope of services includes the following: • We will audit the financial statements of the governmental activities, the business- type activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information, which collectively comprise the entity's basic financial statements of the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota as of and for the year ending December 31, 2011. The following supplementary information required by generally accepted accounting principles that will be subjected to certain limited procedures, but will not be audited: o Management's discussion and analysis o Budgetary comparison schedules presented as RSI o Schedule of Funding Progress - OPEB We have also been engaged to report on supplementary information other than RSI that accompanies the City's financial statements. We will subject the following supplementary information to the auditing procedures applied in our audit of the financial statements and certain additional procedures, including comparing and reconciling such information directly to the underlying accounting and other records used to prepare the financial statements or to the financial statements themselves, and other additional procedures in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and will provide an opinion on it in relation to the financial statements as a whole: o Schedule of expenditures of federal awards, if required o Combining and individual fund financial statements 4810 White Bear Parkway White Bear Lake,MN 55110 651.426.7000 651.426.5004 fax www.hlbtr.com 1544I Opportunity Employer 100-Percent Employee-Owned HLB Tautges Redpath,Ltd is a member of HLB International,a world-wide network of independent accounting firms and business advisors. City of Columbia Heights Contract for Auditing Services Page 2 The following other information accompanying the 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 not provide an opinion or any assurance. o Introductory section o Statistical section The following o State Legal Compliance Audit o Copying and binding of financial statements 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 additional information referred to in the second paragraph when considered in relation to the financial statements as a whole. The objective also includes reporting on: • Internal control related to the financial statements and compliance with laws, regulations, and the provisions of contracts or grant agreements, noncompliance with which could have a material effect on the financial statements in accordance with Government Auditing Standards. • 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 OMB 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 solely for the information and use of management, the body or individuals charged with governance, others within the entity 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 OMB Circular A-133, and will include tests of accounting records, a determination of major program(s) in accordance with OMB Circular A-133, and other procedures we consider necessary to enable us to express such 1569445.1 City of Columbia Heights Contract for Auditing Services Page 3 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 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 identifying government award programs and understanding and complying with the compliance requirements, and preparation of the schedule of expenditures of federal awards in accordance with the requirements of OMB Circular A-133. As part of the audit, we will assist with preparation of your financial statements, schedule of expenditures of federal awards, and related notes. 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. You will be required to acknowledge in the management representation letter our assistance with preparation of the financial statements and the schedule of expenditures of federal awards and that you have reviewed and approved the financial statements, schedule of expenditures of federal awards, and related notes prior to their issuance and have accepted responsibility for them. Further, you are required to designate an individual with suitable skill, knowledge or experience to oversee any nonaudit services we provide and for evaluating the adequacy and results of those services and accepting responsibility for them. Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal controls, including internal controls over compliance and for evaluating and monitoring ongoing activities, to help ensure that appropriate goals and objectives are met and that there is reasonable assurance that government programs are administered in compliance with compliance requirements. You are also responsible for the selection and application of accounting principles; for the fair presentation in the financial statements of the respective financial position of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, the aggregate discretely presented component units, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota and the respective changes in financial position and, where applicable, cash flows in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; and for compliance with applicable laws and regulations and the provisions of contracts and grant agreements. Management is also responsible for making all financial records and related information available to us and for ensuring that management and financial information is reliable and properly recorded. Your responsibilities also include, including identifying significant vendor relationships in which the vendor has responsibility for program compliance and for 1569445.1 City of Columbia Heights Contract for Auditing Services Page 4 the accuracy and completeness of that information. Your responsibilities include adjusting the financial statements to correct material misstatements and 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. 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 or illegal acts affecting the government involving (1) management, (2) employees who have significant roles in internal control, and (3) others where the fraud or 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, regulations, contracts, agreements, and grants. Additionally, as required by OMB Circular A-133, it is management's responsibility to follow up and take corrective action on reported findings and to prepare a summary schedule of prior audit findings and a corrective action plan. You are responsible for the preparation of the supplementary information in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. You agree to include our report on the supplementary information in any document that contains and indicates that we have reported on the supplementary information. Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining 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 timing and format for providing that information. With regard to the electronic dissemination of audited financial statements, including financial statements published electronically on your website, 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. 1569445.1 City of Columbia Heights Contract for Auditing Services Page 5 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 or 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 you of any material errors and any fraudulent financial reporting or misappropriation of assets that come to our attention. We will also inform you of any violations of laws or governmental regulations that come to our attention, unless clearly inconsequential, and of any material abuse that comes to our attention. 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 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 require certain written representations from you about the financial statements and related matters. Audit Procedures—Internal Controls 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 1569445.1 City of Columbia Heights Contract for Auditing Services Page 6 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 OMB 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 OMB 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 OMB 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 of Columbia Heights, Minnesota's compliance with applicable laws and regulations and the provisions of contracts and agreements, including grant agreements. However, the objective of those procedures 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. The Minnesota Legal Compliance Audit Guide for Local Government requires that we test whether the auditee has complied with certain provisions of Minnesota Statutes. Our audit will include such test of the accounting records and other procedures as we consider necessary in the circumstances. OMB 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 tests of transactions and other applicable procedures described in the OMB Circular A-133 Compliance Supplement for the types of compliance requirements that could have a direct and material effect on each of the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota's major programs. The purpose of these procedures will be to express an opinion on the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota's compliance with requirements applicable to each of its major programs in our report on compliance issued pursuant to OMB Circular A-133. 1569445.1 City of Columbia Heights Contract for Auditing Services Page 7 Engagement Administration, Fees and Other We understand that your employees will prepare all cash, accounts receivable, or other confirmations we request and will locate any documents selected by us for testing. At the conclusion of the engagement, we will complete the appropriate sections of the Data Collection Form that summarizes our audit findings. We will provide copies of our reports to the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota; however, it is management's responsibility to submit the reporting package (including financial statements, schedule of expenditures of federal awards, summary schedule of prior audit findings, auditors' reports, and a corrective action plan) along with the Data Collection Form to the federal audit clearinghouse and, if appropriate, to pass-through entities. We will coordinate with you the electronic submission and certification. The Data Collection Form and the reporting package must be submitted within the earlier of 30 days after receipt of the auditors' reports or nine months after the end of the audit period, unless a longer period is agreed to in advance by the cognizant or oversight agency for audits. The audit documentation for this engagement is the property of HLB Tautges Redpath, Ltd. and constitutes confidential information. However,pursuant to authority given by law or regulation, we may be requested to make certain audit documentation available to grantor agency(ies), a federal agency providing direct or indirect funding, or the U.S. Government Accountability Office for purposes of a quality review of the audit,to resolve audit findings, or to carry out oversight responsibilities. We will notify you of any such request. If requested, access to such audit documentation will be provided under the supervision of HLB Tautges Redpath, Ltd. personnel. Furthermore, upon request, we may provide copies of selected audit documentation to the aforementioned parties. These parties may intend, or decide,to distribute the copies or information contained therein to others, including other governmental agencies. The audit documentation for this engagement will be retained for a minimum of five years after the report release or for any additional period requested by the grantor agency(ies). If we are aware that a federal awarding agency,pass-through entity, or auditee is contesting an audit finding, we will contact the party(ies) contesting the audit finding for guidance prior to destroying the audit documentation. We estimate that our fee for these services, including expenses, will be as follows: Financial audit, including copying and binding of CAFR and REAC submission $35,000 Single audit (assumes one major program) $ 3,000 1569445.1 City of Columbia Heights Contract for Auditing Services Page 8 Our invoices for these fees will be rendered each month as work progresses and are payable on presentation. The above fee is based on anticipated cooperation from your personnel, completion of workpapers per the client to prepare list by your personnel, and the assumption that unexpected circumstances will not be encountered during the audit. If significant additional time is necessary due to a change in scope of services or delays in receiving audit information requests, we will discuss it with you and arrive at a new fee estimate. Government Auditing Standards require that we provide you with a copy of our most recent quality control review report and letter of comment, if any. Our 2010 peer review report accompanies this letter. We are pleased to report that we did not receive a letter of comment. We appreciate the opportunity to be of service to the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota and believe this letter accurately summarizes 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, HLB TAUTGES REDPATH, LTD. David J. Mol, CPA Response: This letter correctly sets forth the understanding of the City of Columbia Heights, Minnesota: / B , ,. 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