Key Points
- Wilton’s delayed audit is complete, but financial reporting weaknesses and unfinished reconciliations require further work.
- Finance officials reviewed corrective measures involving staff training, accounting procedures and grant oversight.
- With the next audit approaching, subcommittee members sought clearer milestones to track progress.
Why It Matters: Completing the audit closes one chapter; the corrective work will help determine whether Wilton can produce reliable financial reports and avoid another prolonged delay.
After a tumultuous journey marked by delays, poor communication and lingering questions, Wilton’s annual comprehensive financial report for Fiscal Year 2025 — the state-mandated audit of town finances — was finally filed on Oct. 20.
On Tuesday, Oct. 27, the Board of Finance‘s Audit Remediation and Financial Reporting Subcommittee began the laborious process of examining why the town had such difficulty reconciling its accounts, discussing safeguards to avoid future audit problems and helping the Finance Department and Board of Selectmen develop plans for corrective action.
“We are pleased to be sitting here with a finished report,” BOF member Kim Healy, who chairs the subcommittee, announced at the start. “It was a process to get here, thank you very much, but we have arrived.”
Along with BOF Vice Chair Rudy Escalante and BOF member Kari Roberts, the group was also joined by Wilton Chief Financial Officer Dawn Savo, who presented the subcommittee with a six-page “Corrective Action Plan,” addressing problems in the town’s financial reporting and grant compliance identified by outside auditors CliftonLarsonAllen LLP (CLA).
The final audit reports identify two material weaknesses in financial reporting, a general compliance issue related to late audit filings, and two significant deficiencies in internal control over compliance involving federal grant requirements. The corrective action plan also includes a Town Aid Road reporting finding that Savo subsequently confirmed was removed before the audit was finalized.
“I confirmed with CLA that the TAR late filing was removed after we provided documentation of the report. The Corrective Action Plan was done prior to the audit completion,” Savo told GOOD Morning Wilton.
The plan describes the problems, recommendations for addressing them, and the town’s responses, naming Savo as responsible for corrective action on each item.
The document lists June 2027 as the planned completion date for all six corrective actions, although Savo described several measures already implemented or underway.
“The Town did not have proper controls in place to ensure the timely reporting of account balances for audit,” the auditors found. The corrective action plan identifies issues with recording pooled cash and interfund activity, along with timely reconciliation of tax and sewer receivables and collections.
CLA recommended that the Town strengthen its financial close process to include accrual type entries within each fund in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and complete monthly account reconciliations on time.
“I know for a fact the reconciliations weren’t done monthly,” Savo told the subcommittee. “Maybe they were in the past, but they weren’t more recently. And this was an issue that carried over from Fiscal Year ’24.”
Finance staff have since been trained to reconcile tax and sewer activity between the tax collection system and Munis, the town’s financial management software. Savo said those reconciliations are current for FY 2027, but staff are still working through FY 2026.
Additional work also remains on pooled cash and interfund accounting. Savo said she needs to meet with consultant Joseph Centofanti of PKF O’Connor Davies to review prior entries and adjustments, with manual entries still needed to clean up FY 2026 records.
The town was also cited for not properly adding capital items into the Munis fixed asset software.
The transition to Munis has been a point of concern and confusion over the past year. First Selectman Toni Boucher has blamed many of the issues that plagued the town’s financial records on problems related to the change in software.
The auditors pointed to those implementation issues as contributing to delayed reconciliations and year-end adjustments, along with additional consulting and out-of-scope fees.
Savo said she had approached CLA’s consulting division to assist with configuring pooled cash and fixed asset accounts in Munis.
“Staff have been trained to identify capital expenditures and record them appropriately,” the corrective action plan states. “Individual capital purchases will be recorded as transactions are posted during the monthly accounting process.” Larger, ongoing construction projects will be reviewed as purchase orders are closed and at the end of the year.
The subcommittee also discussed the Town Aid Road reporting issue included in the corrective action plan, which Savo later confirmed had been removed from the final audit.
To improve grant reporting, the plan describes a more standardized process, including reviewing requirements when grants are received, assigning staff responsibilities and inputting documentation into Munis. A master grant tracking list, including reporting deadlines, is also being developed.
“An administrative support position is being recommended for the next fiscal year’s budget, with grant administration included among its responsibilities,” the plan states, to help centralize the grant process.
BOF members said they thought this position was already handled by Hadley Boyd, communications and community outreach coordinator in the first selectman’s office, but Savo said Boyd works part time and has communication responsibilities, while much of the grant work is currently handled within individual departments.
Healy noted that the incoming town administrator could potentially take on some responsibilities from the first selectman’s office, freeing up time for other staff members.
The plan also addresses two significant deficiencies involving federal American Rescue Plan Act funding: a late project and expenditure report, and missing documentation.
Savo said that while money has been allocated in the budget for a new purchasing agent, the position still has not been filled. That person, potentially, could help address issues raised in the audit related to procurement activities at the time contracts are executed.
Savo noted that the town agreed with all of the audit findings.
“We’re not disagreeing with anything,” she said.
Savo acknowledged that the Finance Department is facing some staffing challenges as the town prepares for its next audit for FY26, mentioning one critical employee due to begin maternity leave soon.
She anticipated auditors beginning their fieldwork in January, although dates had not been confirmed. Members discussed March 2027 as a target for completing the FY26 audit, separate from the corrective action plan’s June 2027 completion date.
“I haven’t locked in any dates with them yet,” Savo said.
Escalante pressed for interim milestones so members could assess progress before March, rather than waiting until the target date.
“So we know these. This is what’s going to happen in December. This is what’s going to happen in January. It’s going to happen in February, and that way we can track it as we’re coming along, as opposed to just at the end,” he said.
Savo said she could provide audit updates at the subcommittee’s regular meetings and a clearer assessment once meetings with the auditors and consultant were scheduled.
