County Auditor
County Auditor Overview
The County Auditor serves as an independent audit function, reporting to the Arlington County Board with additional guidance from the Audit Committee. The County Auditor conducts independent performance and operational audits of County departments, programs, and services. These audits focus on program efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency.
The County Board appoints the County Auditor under the authority of § 15.2-709.2 of the Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended. The County Board adopted a Board Charge in July 2015 establishing the position, and revised the Board Charge on June 20, 2017 to develop further the role of the County Auditor and the Audit Committee. The Board Charge serves as the Audit Charter and covers numerous topics. These topics include powers and duties; access to information; the use of Government Auditing Standards (Yellow Book Standards); and the composition, roles, and responsibilities of the Audit Committee.
Annual Audit Work Plans
The County Board approves the County Auditor’s Annual Audit Work Plan (Work Plan). The Work Plan is based on a risk assessment performed by the County Auditor, and refined in consultation with the Audit Committee. Information gathered in the risk assessment process included County data, such as budget documents, and County Board work sessions. The County Auditor also holds discussions with County Board members, management, and Audit Committee members. The Work Plan is designed to be flexible to respond to changing needs as they arise. The Work Plan may be altered during the year, in consultation with the County Board, Audit Committee, and County management. The Work Plans also include an Audit Horizon, which lists audits that could be performed in future years. Finally, Work Plans include non-audit activities, such as Quick Response reports, training, risk assessment activities, and contractor oversight.
Annual Work Plans are provided below.
Audit Committee
The Audit Committee provides guidance to the County Auditor and the County Board is considering risks that can be addressed in audits of County programs. The Audit Committee, which meets at least quarterly, plays a vital role in advising the County Auditor and the County Board on the Annual Audit Work Plan. The Audit Committee also receives annual updates from the County's Internal Audit function, which resides in the Department of Management and Finance, and receives an annual update regarding the completed annual financial statement audit conducted by the County’s independent external auditor.
Audits Issued
This section contains links to the full audit report, including the management response. In addition, the section provides a quick link to the one page Report Highlights, or shows the Executive Summary of the report. The results of the completed follow-up reviews are also publicly-issued and posted here.
Emergency Communications Center Overtime
Police Department Overtime
Technology Services - Contract Management
Fleet Management
Full Report - Title and Number
Fleet Management Letter Report (Report 2021-02)(PDF, 743KB)
Publication date: 11-24-2021
Executive Summary
This executive report, or “letter report,” summarizes the findings and recommendations from the Arlington County Auditor’s audit of vehicle fleet management within Arlington County. The Equipment Bureau of the Department of Environmental Services (DES) provides fleet management for the County.
The audit resulted in four observations. First, the process for developing the rental book, which is the list of all County and Arlington Public Schools (APS) vehicles with their annual cost and maintenance cost, appears sound. Second, several improvements to the fleet utilization policy were made during the audit and will improve the efficient use and proper sizing of the fleet. Third, an analysis of FY 2018 maintenance work orders showed that timeliness was generally good but that there was room for improvement. Finally, the audit showed the safety processes with the Equipment Bureau were valuable, and that some improvements are needed to support incident prevention. Eight recommendations are provided alongside the four observation areas.
Follow-up
Follow-up status report — Issued 5-27-2022(PDF, 122KB)
Non-Profit Funding
Full Report - Title and Number
Non-Profit Funding Letter Report (Report 2022-01)(PDF, 503KB)
Publication date: 5-30-2022
Executive Summary
This executive report, or “letter report,” summarizes the findings and recommendations from the Arlington County Auditor’s audit of non-profit funding within Arlington County. The purpose of the audit was to answer the question What practices are available for policymakers to make decisions on non-profit funding allocations? The focus on the audit was practices used to award contracts with non-profits who provide human and social services.
The audit resulted in two specific observations. First, there is need for clear strategic priorities to guide policymakers’ non-profit funding allocation decisions. These strategic priorities should be transparent to the community and non-profit partners, focused and measurable, and consistent from year to year. In addition, once these strategic funding priorities are set, the use of non-competitively procured contracts with non-profit partners should be re-evaluated.
County Auditor Follow-up Tracking
As the number of follow-up reports have increased it is valuable to see the overall progress toward implementing audit recommendations. The County Auditor compiles all recommendations from all audit reports issued into the following spreadsheet. Users can access the spreadsheet to assess overall progress toward full implementation of audit recommendations, filtered by attributes such as report topic or implementation status. This spreadsheet will be updated after the completion of each follow-up report and will be presented at Audit Committee meetings. As of May 31, 2022, all audits except the non-profit funding audit have received at least one follow-up review.
Follow-up Spreadsheet (as of 5-31-2022)(XLSX, 25KB)
As of May 2022, the County Auditor's six reports contained a total of 74 recommendations. The following dashboard provides the overall follow-up status at a glance.
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Implemented
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51
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Partially Implemented
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17
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Not Implemented
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1
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| No Follow-up Work Completed Yet |
2 |
| Not Applicable - Management Disagreed with Recommendation |
3 |
Internal Audit Services
In addition to the County Auditor, there is a County Internal Audit Program, which exists within the Department of Management and Finance (DMF). The Internal Audit Program is a combination of internal audit resources and external consulting services. More information about the Internal Audit program is available on its webpage, including the annual work plan and recent audit reports.
The County Auditor strives to work collaboratively with the Internal Audit Program to reduce duplication of effort and impact. However, a previous audit by the Internal Audit Program does not restrict the County Auditor’s ability to perform an audit in the same area, if deemed necessary by the County Board within the Work Plan.
Arlington Public Schools Internal Auditor
Arlington Public Schools (APS) has an internal auditor, separate from the County Auditor and the DMF Internal Audit Program. The APS Auditor reports to the APS Audit Committee, and ultimately to the APS School Board. This structure was developed to help the Internal Auditor remain independent of APS management. More information about the APS Internal Audit function is available on the APS website, including the current Audit Plan and recent APS audits.
The County Auditor does not audit APS programs, except as may be related to ongoing audits of County programs and activities.