Audits flagged a deficit in Orem's facilities fund four years running, fiscal 2022 to 2025
Auditors found Orem did not budget to pay down a deficit in its Facilities Maintenance Fund in each audit from fiscal 2022 through 2025, along with other state compliance lapses.
Continuing story: Auditing Orem
Orem's auditors reported in each audit from fiscal 2022 through fiscal 2025 that the city's Facilities Maintenance Fund carried a deficit that the city had not budgeted to retire as state law requires. [1][2][3][4]
The fund is an internal service fund that charges other city funds for the upkeep of city facilities. [5] Utah law requires a city to budget at least 5% of a deficit fund's revenue, or the whole deficit if it is smaller, toward eliminating it. [1]
Year by year
The fiscal 2022 audit found no appropriation to retire the deficit. [4] The city responded that the fund was new in fiscal 2021 and that some costs were higher than expected. [4]
In fiscal 2023, the city transferred $275,000 into the fund, which the auditors said did not cover the added costs, so the deficit grew. [3]
In fiscal 2024, the city raised the fund's revenue by about $370,000, but costs rose another $133,000 and the deficit grew by $134,371. [2] The auditors said the budgeted reduction should have been at least $112,500. [2]
The fiscal 2025 audit repeated the finding. [1] The city responded that it had budgeted $115,000 in a "holding/contingency" account it will not use, which it said would cut the deficit about in half, with the rest to be relieved in the fiscal 2027 budget. [1]
The fund's net position was negative $235,568 on June 30, 2025, compared with negative $276,057 a year earlier. [5]
Other findings
The fiscal 2024 audit found that spending in the city's Senior Citizens, Self-insurance and Facilities Maintenance funds exceeded budgeted appropriations by a material amount. [2] The fiscal 2025 report says that finding appears to be corrected. [1]
In fiscal 2022, the city's deposit and investment report to the state Money Management Council left out three Public Treasurer's Investment Fund accounts. [4] In fiscal 2025, the auditors found the report listed improper accounts and did not list all accounts. [1]
The fiscal 2025 federal grant audit reported no findings, and the auditors deemed Orem a low-risk auditee. [1]
Sources
- City of Orem · FY2025 single audit and state compliance reports (Larson & Company)
- City of Orem · FY2024 single audit and state compliance reports (Larson & Company)
- City of Orem · FY2023 single audit and state compliance reports (Larson & Company)
- City of Orem · FY2022 single audit and state compliance reports (Larson & Company)
- City of Orem · FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report
Reporting by The Utah Ledger from the public records above. AI-assisted, checked against those records.