Secondary Follow-up: A Special Audit of Salt Lake County Solid Waste Management

Auditor's Letter

March 16, 2026

In line with generally accepted government auditing standards and the established policies of the Auditor’s Office, as authorized by Utah Code Title 17, Chapter 19a, “County Auditor”, Part 2, “Powers and Duties”, we maintain our responsibility to monitor and ensure that audit recommendations are addressed by county agencies through appropriate corrective action. This is also instrumental in forming our future audits.

This letter serves as the final follow-up report for A Special Audit of Salt Lake County Solid Waste Management. The original audit report, issued in January 2023, identified six findings with 15 recommendations. In the preliminary follow-up issued in January 2025, Solid Waste management staff implemented 14 recommendations, and one recommendation remained in progress.

As in the preliminary follow up, during this final follow-up audit period of April 1, 2025, to September 30, 2025, there were no write offs of accounts receivable. As a result, there were no transactions available for testing to determine whether write-offs were submitted to the District Attorney’s Office in accordance with the remaining recommendation. Because no write-offs occurred, the risk the recommendation
was intended to address could not be evaluated.

Given the absence of write-off activity during two follow-up audits, additional follow-up work is not planned and the recommendation was closed. The recommendation remains applicable, and management should ensure that any future write-offs are submitted to the District Attorney’s Office in accordance with County policy.

We performed this audit in accordance with Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

We extend our appreciation to Solid Waste Management for their cooperation and assistance during this process. The enclosed follow-up audit report presents the final status of all recommendations. Should you have any questions or wish to discuss this report further, please contact me at 385-468- 7200.

Chris Harding, CPA, CFE, CIA
Salt Lake County Auditor