This legislation addresses the auditing of any public school district, charter school, educational cooperative, or any publicly supported entity having supervision over public educational entities.
Auditing of funds means “Public Funds” which means any funds, moneys, receivables, grants, investments, instruments, real or personal property, or other assets, liabilities, equities, revenues, receipts, or disbursements belonging to, held by or for, or passed through a public school district, charter school or educational cooperative.
The Legislative Auditor shall conduct audits of all schools and any transactions regarding the public funds of the schools. However, the school may retain the services of a licensed certified public accountant or a licensed accountant in public practice in good standing with the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy to conduct the annual financial audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States and Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. The report shall include a report on internal control over financial reporting and on compliance and other matters based on an audit of financial statements performed in accordance with Government Auditing Standards. The financial statements shall consist of the following:
A balance sheet;
A statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances;
A comparison of the final adopted budget to the actual expenditures for the general fund of the entity and the special revenue fund of the entity; and
notes to the financial statements.
This report shall include as supplemental information a schedule of capital assets, including land, buildings and equipment.
Every report of an annual financial audit shall be filed with the Legislative Auditor within ten (10) days of issuance to the board.