4.1 ERMUSR 04-14-2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Management and Public UtilitiesCommission Elk River Municipal Utilities Elk River, Minnesota We have audited the financial statements of the Elk River Municipal Utilities(the Utilities)of the City of Elk River, Minnesota, (the City)as of and for yearended December 31, 2019. Professional standards require that we provide you with information about our responsibilities under generally accepted auditing standards as well as certain information related to the planned scope and timing of our audit. We have communicated such information in our letter dated October 15,2019.Professional standards require that we provide you with the following information related to our audit. Our Responsibility Under Auditing Standards Generally Accepted in the United Statesof America As stated in our engagement letter, our responsibility, as described by professional standards, is to express anopinion about whether the financial statements prepared by management with your oversight are fairly presented, in all material respects, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. Our audit of the financial statements does not relieve you or management of your responsibilities. Our responsibility is to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement. As part of our audit, we considered the internal control over financial reporting of the Utilities. Such considerations were solely for the purpose of determining our audit procedures and not to provide any assurance concerning such internal control. We are responsible for communicating significant matters related to the audit that are, in our professional judgment, relevant to your responsibilities in overseeing the financial reporting process. However, we are not required to design procedures specifically to identify such matters. Significant Audit Findings In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements, we considered the Utilities internal control over financial reporting (internal control) to determine the audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances for the purpose of expressing our opinions on the financial statements, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of theUtilities internal control. Accordingly, we do not express an opinion on the effectiveness of the Utilities internal control. Adeficiency in internal controlexists when the design or operation of a control does not allow management or employees, in the normal course of performing their assigned functions, to prevent, or detect and correct, misstatements on a timely basis. A material weaknessis a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the entity’s financial statements will not be prevented, or detected and corrected on a timely basis. Asignificant deficiencyis a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control that is less severe thana material weakness, yet important enough to merit attention by those charged with governance. Our consideration of internal control was for the limited purpose described in the first paragraph of this section and was not designed to identify all deficiencies in internal control that might be material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. Given these limitations, during our audit we did not identify any deficiencies in internal control that we consider to be material weaknesses. However, material weaknesses may exist that have not been identified. 2 85