Colorado § 29-1-603 - Audits required.

§ 29-1-603. Audits required.

(1) The governing body of each local government in the state shall cause to be made an annual audit of the financial statements of the local government for each fiscal year. To the extent that the financial activities of any local government, or of any other entity, organization, or corporation formed by intergovernmental agreement or other contract between or among local governments, are fully reported in the audit or audits of a parent local government or governments, a separate audit is not required. Such audit shall be made as of the end of the fiscal year of the local government, or, at the option of the governing body, audits may be made at more frequent intervals. As part of the audit of a school district, the auditor shall ensure that the school district is complying with the provisions of section 22-44-204 (3), C.R.S., concerning the use of the financial policies and procedures handbook adopted by the state board of education. The audit report shall contain a fiscal year report of receipts and expenditures of each fund with designated program reports in accordance with the financial policies and procedures handbook. The supplemental schedules of receipts and expenditures for each fund shall be in the format prescribed by the state board of education and shall be in agreement with the audited financial statements of the school district. The department of education shall provide assistance to auditors and school districts in implementing and following these requirements.

(1.5) Repealed.

(2) The audits of each local government shall be conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards by an auditor, as defined in section 29-1-602, but in no event shall any auditor audit the records, books, or accounts which he has maintained.

(3) The expenses of audits required by this part 6, whether ordered by the local government or the state auditor, shall be paid by the local government for which the audit is made. It is the duty of the governing body of the local government to make provision for payment of said expenses.

(4) The entities listed in section 29-1-602 (5)(b) shall annually have an audit made by a certified public accountant and shall file a copy of the audit report made pursuant to such audit with the state auditor no later than thirty days after the report is received by such entity.

(5) For the audit for the 1994-95 budget year and budget years thereafter, the audit report of each school district shall include a calculation of the school district's fiscal year spending under section 20 of article X of the state constitution; except that, if a school district has received voter approval to retain revenues in excess of its spending limits under said section 20 (7), the school district shall include a calculation of its fiscal year spending for the first fiscal year following said voter approval but need not include such calculation for fiscal years thereafter.

(6) (a) For the audit of a local government for any budget year in which a law enforcement agency that the local government establishes a budget for receives funds from the peace officer training and support fund established in section 24-33.5-122 (2), the audit report for that local government shall include evidence that the local government complied with the requirements of section 24-33.5-122 (3). The evidence in the audit report shall include the amount distributed by the department of public safety to the law enforcement agency pursuant to section 24-33.5-122 (4), how much of that amount the law enforcement agency expended, and the purposes for which the law enforcement agency expended that amount.

(b) A local government subject to an audit described in subsection (6)(a) of this section shall provide a copy of that audit to the department of public safety in a form and manner determined by the department of public safety. The department of public safety shall review a subset of the audits received pursuant to this subsection (6)(b) for compliance with the requirements of section 24-33.5-122 (3).

(c) Any local government that receives funds from the peace officer training and support fund established in section 24-33.5-122 (2) for any budget year and that fails to complete an audit required by this section for that budget year or that fails to provide a copy of that audit to the department of public safety as required by this section for that budget year or that is exempt from performing an audit by section 29-1-604 for that budget year, shall, on or before December 31 of the year in which the audit is not completed, provided, or for which the local government is exempted from the audit, in a form and manner determined by the department, provide a report to the department that states the amount distributed by the department of public safety to the law enforcement agency pursuant to section 24-33.5-122 (4), how much of that amount the law enforcement agency expended, and the purposes for which the law enforcement agency expended that amount.

Source: L. 65: p. 860, § 3. C.R.S. 1963: § 88-6-3. L. 75: (2) amended, p. 960, § 1, effective June 16; (1) amended, p. 708, § 8, effective July 14. L. 88: (1) amended, p. 822, § 32, effective May 24. L. 89: (1) and (2) amended and (4) added, p. 1257, § 5, effective May 2. L. 91: (1) amended, p. 1918, § 43, effective June 1. L. 95: (5) added, p. 619, § 21, effective May 22. L. 99: (5) amended, p. 177, § 6, effective March 30. L. 2012: (1.5) added, (HB 12-1329), ch. 190, p. 764, § 2, effective August 8. L. 2021: (1.5) repealed, (SB 21-266), ch. 423, p. 2804, § 31, effective July 2. L. 2025: (6) added, (SB 25-310), ch. 359, p. 1957, § 8, effective June 2.