“The Church Audit Committee Report,” Ensign, May 1996, 21
The Church Audit Committee Report
To the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church Audit Committee is independent of all Church officers, employees, operations, and departments, including the Church Auditing Department, and reports directly to the First Presidency. We have access to all records and personnel necessary to perform our responsibility. We have reviewed the financial policies and procedures that provide controls over receipts and expenditures of funds and that safeguard assets of the Church and its controlled organizations, including budgeting, accounting, and reporting, and the auditing systems and reports, for the year ended 31 December 1995.
Expenditures of Church funds for the year were authorized by the Council on the Disposition of the Tithes according to written policies. The Council is composed of the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the Presiding Bishopric, as prescribed under revelation. Administration of approved budgets is controlled through the Budget Department under the direction of the Appropriations and Budget Committees.
The Church Auditing Department, which is separate from the Church Audit Committee, is conducting an audit of the financial activities of the Church and its affiliated companies for the year ended 31 December 1995, in compliance with recognized professional auditing standards. It also performs financial audits, operational audits, and audits of computerized information systems for all Church operations. Its staff consists of certified public accountants and other professionally qualified auditors. The Church Auditing Department is independent of all other Church operations and departments and reports its findings directly to the First Presidency. Incorporated businesses owned or controlled by the Church maintain their own accounting and reporting systems in compliance with accepted business practice and are audited by the Church Auditing Department and/or independent public accounting firms. Brigham Young University and other institutions of higher education are audited by independent public accounting firms. The Church Auditing Department has established audit procedures for audits of local ecclesiastical units and also monitors local unit audit results and local unit expenditures.
Based on our review of financial and control policies and procedures and our review of all audit reports issued in 1995 and responses thereto, the Church Audit Committee is of the opinion that in all material respects, Church funds received and expended during the year ended 31 December 1995, have been controlled and accounted for in accordance with established Church policies and procedures.
Respectfully submitted,
CHURCH AUDIT COMMITTEE
Ted E. Davis, Chairman
Donald D. Salmon
James B. Jacobson