Read this before reading any Arkansas audit: county and city reports carry a technical 'adverse opinion' on GAAP grounds because Arkansas law has them keep books on a simpler 'regulatory basis.' That phrase appears in every such audit in the state and signals the accounting format — not wrongdoing. A report is 'clean' or not in its findings, deficiencies, and noncompliance sections, which is what this page quotes.
“The results of our tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards.”
No material weaknesses in internal control were identified. Federal grant compliance is audited separately and that report had not yet been issued.
Source: Clark County — Financial and Compliance Report, year ended December 31, 2023 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 6.
Machine reading of both reports surfaced no findings, deficiency, or noncompliance language beyond standard definitions. These older-format reports are queued for a page-by-page visual pass before we call them clean outright.
“The results of our tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards.”
No material weaknesses in internal control were identified in either year.
Source: City of Arkadelphia — Regulatory Basis Financial Statements, December 31, 2023 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 6.
No material weaknesses in internal control were identified; the compliance report follows the standard no-findings form.
Source: City of Arkadelphia — Regulatory Basis Financial Statements, December 31, 2024 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 6.
“No significant deficiencies or material weaknesses were disclosed during the audit of the financial statements. No instances of noncompliance material to the financial statements of the System were disclosed by the audit.”
Source: Arkadelphia Water and Sewer System — audit, year ended December 31, 2023, page 24.
“No matters were reported.”
Both the financial statement findings and the federal award findings sections. Unmodified (clean) opinion on federal program compliance; the district qualified as a low-risk auditee.
Source: Arkadelphia School District No. 1 — audit, year ended June 30, 2024 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 27.
No material weaknesses, no reportable findings, unmodified opinion on federal compliance, and no prior-year findings carried forward.
Source: Gurdon School District No. 60 — audit, year ended June 30, 2024 (Arkansas Legislative Audit), page 26.
In July 2026 the county learned it must return about $1.3 million of local sales tax to the state, at $75,000 a month for 18 months. The mechanism is ordinary: Arkansas caps local sales tax on any single large purchase, and businesses may lawfully claim rebates of what they paid past the cap. Businesses claimed those rebates; the state passes the clawback to the county. The county treasurer had anticipated it, and the county judge told the quorum court the receipts had looked inflated. One thing worth knowing: the state does not disclose which businesses claimed the rebates — that anonymity is state practice, not a county choice.
News lead (the Arkadelphian, July 14, 2026) — the DFA notice and repayment schedule are documents worth requesting for the corpus.
First OCR result from the archived minutes (December 8, 2025 regular session): Ordinance 2025-21 — the 2026 budget this whole site navigates — was adopted unanimously, all eleven justices voting Yea by name. The same meeting adopted the 2026 property tax levy (Ordinance 2025-19) and Ordinance 2025-22, 'amending and adopting a base pay threshold for all new full-time county employees beginning January 1, 2026' — a pay-structure move worth reading in full alongside the deputy-pay question. Obtaining 2025-22's text is now on the docket.
· Audits test compliance and controls — they do not judge whether spending choices are wise, whether deputy pay should be higher, or whether $1.84M in economic development incentives is well aimed. Those are policy questions, and they belong to residents and elected officials, not auditors.
· Clean audits and unposted records can both be true. Nothing here contradicts the gaps on the docket; it means the referee found the books kept by the rules.
· The FY2024 county audit is not yet published; this page updates when it is.