Desha County gets clean state audit for 2024

ARKANSAS CITY — Desha County came through its state audit without a single finding, according to a report on the county’s 2024 finances released this week by Arkansas Legislative Audit.

The Financial and Compliance Report, covering the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, became public when it went before the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee’s standing committee on counties, which met Thursday, Aug. 13, in Little Rock. It was one of five county audits released at the meeting.

Auditors evaluated the county’s compliance with state laws on general accounting, budgeting, purchasing, and the investing and depositing of public funds. Their conclusion was a single sentence counties hope to see: during the evaluation, nothing came to the auditors’ attention that would warrant disclosure in the report.

That puts Desha County in rare company among the audits released Thursday. Miller County’s report included findings on construction contract bidding and $63,000 in Quorum Court retention bonuses that auditors said violated state law. Jefferson County’s audit flagged repeat bidding violations and solar panels the county paid $305,694 for in 2021 that have never been installed. Garland and Montgomery counties each drew one management letter comment.

The clean report covers the offices of County Judge Richard Tindall, Treasurer Shirley Kozubski, Sheriff Mitch Grant, Tax Collector Lisa Hutchison, County Clerk Valerie Donaldson, Circuit Clerk Kristin Christmas and Assessor Jessica Ferguson.

The county’s unaudited financial statements show a general fund that took in $3.7 million in revenue against $3.8 million in spending in 2024, ending the year with a fund balance of $2.7 million. The road fund ended the year with $2.9 million on hand.

Reports presented to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee are public records under state law. The full report is available on the Arkansas Legislative Audit website at arklegaudit.gov under report ID LOCO02124.

This article is based on the Desha County, Arkansas Financial and Compliance Report for the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, issued by Arkansas Legislative Audit.