All across the country, municipalities are scrambling to catch up on late audits that have been backing up for years and dealing with the disastrous financial records that come with having skeleton crews running their finance departments. In Arkansas, 43 towns were cut off from state funds until they got their late audits in. In Texas, it’s so bad that more than 130 tiny towns are unable to raise property taxes after legislators decided to pass a law that kept them from doing so if they haven’t filed timely audits. It’s not just tiny bumfuck towns either, as evidenced by this 2025 report from Truth In Accounting that found six states were late on their 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFRs) and Nevada hadn’t even gotten around to FY23 yet.
In Madison County, Iowa (yes, as in The Bridges of fame), they’ve been dealing with a tumultuous couple of years and were having some trouble getting their 2023 and 2024 audits done. To be fair, it wasn’t 100% their fault. As of last year it was in the state auditor’s hands but the state auditor had been unable to get the audits done in a timely fashion. Let’s find out why, shall we? This is local news WHO13 on December 10, 2025:
Auditor Rob Sand’s office previously said the delays are due, in part, to the complexity created by recent government turmoil in the county. The former county treasurer is scheduled to go on trial next week on criminal charges, including misconduct in office, fraud, tampering with records, and theft, while the county has also had multiple Auditors cycle through over the past couple of years, including one who reportedly stopped coming into work.
Yeah, that’ll do it.
Then there’s the issue of who will do the 2025, 2026, and 2027 audits. The Board of Supervisors had to decide if they wanted to leave it up to the state auditor or bring in an outside firm. They chose the outside firm route and only one firm answered the call: Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants of Atlanta (#59 on the IPA Top 100 with $120,643,461 in revenue).
The WHO13 article explains why the county supervisors picked an outside firm:
“The pricing was the biggest factor for me,” said supervisor Heather Stancil during the meeting’s discussion on the issue. “And, the fact they’ll have a bigger team working on this, based on what they quoted versus what the State Auditor quoted.”
Supervisor Diane Fitch’s opposition was rooted in the fact that she believes the state had an advantage with its understanding of the county’s current complex challenges.
“I am not comfortable with this,” she said. “I think the state might be slow, but they are in the weeds with us right now. They know what mess we’re in, and I think we should stay with them.”
Mauldin & Jenkins quoted Madison County $70,000 for the 2025 audit, $72,000 for 2026, and $75,000 for 2027 while the state auditor estimated $102,150 for 2025, $107,250 for 2026, and $112,350 for 2027. I mean, who doesn’t want a bargain right?
Last week, State Auditor Rob Sand hit the news conference podium to discuss the release of Madison County’s 2023 and 2024 audits (finally!) and, as you can imagine based solely on the fact that there was a fucking news conference about it, it wasn’t great. He emphasized to those who may not know the parlance that a qualified opinion from his office is both rare and bad.
In a completely predictable turn of events, Mauldin & Jenkins has yoinked their engagement letter. In a very nice letter addressed to county auditor Michelle Brant the firm says that their quote was based on what they knew from the 2022 audit, which did not have a giant qualified opinion slapped on it.
After careful consideration, we have concluded that it would not be in the best interests of either the County or our firm for Mauldin & Jenkins to proceed as the independent auditor for the fiscal year 2025 financial statement audit. Accordingly, we are withdrawing from the engagement pursuant to the client acceptance provisions contained in our Engagement Letter.
This decision was not made lightly. We recognize the importance of a stable audit relationship and appreciate the confidence the County placed in our firm. However, we believe it is important to be transparent regarding our professional assessment of the current circumstances and our ability to effectively serve the County under the assumptions upon which our proposal was originally based.
Given the extensive involvement of the Iowa Auditor of State’s Office in the fiscal year 2023 and 2024 audits, we believe the County should strongly consider continuing with the Iowa Auditor of State for the fiscal year 2025 audit. Their team has already developed substantial institutional knowledge regarding the County’s financial reporting processes, internal control environment, and outstanding findings. As a result, they are uniquely positioned to provide continuity and efficiency in addressing the matters identified during the prior audits and evaluating the County’s progress toward remediation.
Bet Diane Fitch is feeling awfully smug right now. As she should.
The best part of their letter is this pitch:
Although we will not be serving as the County’s independent auditor, we remain interested in assisting the County in a consulting capacity. Specifically, we believe the County could benefit from professional assistance in developing and implementing corrective action plans, strengthening internal controls, improving financial reporting processes, preparing audit-ready schedules and supporting documentation, and addressing the findings identified during the recent audits. Such assistance could help position the County for a more efficient and successful audit process in future years.
“We want nothing to do with auditing that dumpster fire you’ve got over there but we’ll help you clean it up if you pay us enough!” Get that bag, Mauldin.
Props to WHO13 for their diligent reporting on this. It’s boring stuff to most people but it affects everyone in the county.
