State Single Audit Changes
By Reed Risteen, CPA
Partner
BlumShapiro
In October 2009 the State of Connecticut passed bill number 7707, which amended the State Single Audit Act and is effective for fiscal year ending June 30, 2010. The amendments increase dollar thresholds that were established in 1995 and bring the state single audit methodology back in line with the federal single audit methodology. The most important feature of the new bill is that it grants authority to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) to establish detailed requirements within the broad parameters of the law. This will enable OPM to change requirements in the future to keep pace with new federal and other developments without having to effect change through the legislative process.
The key changes are as follows:
- The threshold for having to undergo a state single audit has been increased from expenditure of $100,000 of state financial assistance to expenditure of $300,000 of state financial assistance. OPM has estimated that this change will relieve over 120 non-profit organizations in the state from the state single audit requirement going forward.
- Major programs will no longer be determined based solely on the amount of expenditures per program but will be determined using a risk-based approach similar to that required under federal single audits. Under the federal approach, there is a program expenditure threshold over which programs are selected as major programs on a rotating basis. Programs with expenditures under the threshold are only treated as major programs if they are determined to be high risk programs. This threshold for the state single audit was not established in the law and will be determined by OPM in early 2010.
- The bill allows for electronic submission of reports to OPM, with OPM distributing those reports to the granting agencies, a process that is already done with federal single audits. The federal process has worked well and relieves the non-profit organization from mailing reports to each granting agency.
We believe all of these changes are long overdue and very positive. We will provide further updates as implementation guidance is issued by OPM.
If you have additional questions or questions specific to your organization, please contact me at rristeen@blumshapiro.com or 860.561.6848.
As an audit partner in our Non-Profit Services Group, Reed specializes in serving a variety of non-profit organizations, with special emphasis on grant-driven organizations subject to OMB Circular A-133 and the Connecticut State Single Audit Act. In addition, Reed has significant experience in tax-exempt applications and public charity tax issues and has represented non-profit organizations in IRS audits. He has provided consulting services to non-profit organizations in many different areas including the implications of Sarbanes-Oxley on non-profit organizations, executive compensation, cost allocation, internal control system design, financial analysis, strategic planning and accounting system design.
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