Georgia’s 2025 statewide audit identified recurring weaknesses in financial reporting, accounting systems, cash reconciliations, information technology (IT) controls, and oversight across multiple agencies. While many errors were corrected before the state’s financial statements were finalized, auditors found repeated instances where the agencies’ internal controls failed to catch significant mistakes until the audit began.
One of the largest issues involved the State Accounting Office, where auditors uncovered major mistakes in the state’s financial reporting. Before corrections were made, errors included more than $400 million in tax revenue recorded in the wrong category, more than $536 million in restricted assets that were misclassified, and a pension and retiree health reporting error of more than $2.4 billion. Auditors concluded that the state’s review process was not consistently catching major reporting mistakes before the financial statements were finalized.
At the Department of Community Health (DCH), auditors discovered significant discrepancies in the department’s financial records. They found that cash and outstanding bills were understated by $476.5 million. Additionally, another $128.5 million in cash adjustments were required after the books had already closed, and the records likely left out $231.6 million in money owed to the state because certain fees were not properly tracked. Auditors also found approximately $346 million in budget adjustments that the department could not fully support, making it difficult to show that spending stayed within the legal limits approved by lawmakers.
Auditors reported that the Department of Community Health relied heavily on manual journal entries and unsupported adjustments to produce its financial records. In the sample tested, they identified duplicated liabilities totaling $31.7 million, which underscored how much the department’s books depended on year-end corrections.
Just as concerning, some accounting problems had been sitting unresolved for years. Auditors found outdated balances as far back as 2007, suggesting the department had not fully cleaned up older errors in its records.
Technology management problems surfaced across multiple agencies. At the Department of Community Health, auditors found the agency lacked a fully documented IT risk management program. At the Department of Revenue, auditors found weaknesses regarding access to certain systems and whether employees had too much control over key tasks. Those gaps can make it easier for errors or improper activity to go undetected.
Cash management was also a problem identified in the audit. The Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget had outstanding checks more than five years old and accounts payable and receivable items dating back to 1999, Human Services had unreconciled payroll items drawn from bank accounts, Community Affairs recorded a $767.8 million year-end timing error, and the Georgia Technology Authority understated cash by more than $203,000 and liabilities by nearly $569,000.
One of the most serious findings involved the Georgia Department of Labor. Auditors reported that the department’s legacy unemployment insurance system and Excel-based financial reporting processes could not produce reliable transaction-level accounting records. As a result, auditors again issued a disclaimer of opinion on the Unemployment Compensation Fund. A disclaimer of opinion means the auditors couldn’t get enough reliable information to say whether the fund’s financial statements were accurate, making it one of the most egregious audit outcomes a government program can receive.
The audit also found that more than $1 billion in pandemic unemployment payments had not yet been fully reviewed to confirm whether recipients were eligible. That means the state still had a large amount of aid that could later be flagged as overpayments if recipients were found not to qualify under program rules.
The Georgia Technology Authority also had issues involving insufficient documentation for subscription-based technology agreements and the absence of an independent review of controls within the state’s shared IT services. Because multiple agencies rely on those shared technology services, inadequate oversight can affect more than one part of the state government.
Georgia’s 2025 audit findings point to a state financial system that still relies heavily on manual processes, spreadsheets, and inconsistent oversight. Although some of the reported errors were corrected before the final financial statements were issued, the audit makes clear that stronger internal controls and more reliable accounting systems are needed to reduce the risk of future misstatements and improve confidence in statewide financial reporting.