Local Engagements

Please allow 5 - 7 business days for us to confirm receipt of your engagement and report submissions. If you do not receive a confirmation that your engagement or report has been received within that time, please contact Gina Guzzardo at gguzzardo@lla.la.gov.

AUDIT SERVICES: Louisiana law requires state and local government and Louisiana quasi-public entities to annually file their audit, review, or compilation/attestation reports with the Legislative Auditor's Office. The engagements for these reports must be approved by the legislative auditor prior to commencement of the audit. It is the joint responsibility of the CPA and management to obtain engagement approval.

CPA LISTING: The Legislative Auditor maintains a listing of CPAs who perform audit, review, and/or compilation/attestation engagements of governmental and quasi-public entities. The listing includes the names, addresses, parishes, telephone numbers, and fax numbers of available CPA firms. This listing may be viewed or copied from this Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Additional information about these and other CPA firms may be obtained from the Louisiana Society of Certified Public Accountants or the State Board of Certified Public Accountants of Louisiana.

ELECTRONIC ENGAGEMENT APPROVAL SUBMISSION

ELECTRONIC ENGAGEMENT APPROVAL FORM: For routine audit, review/attestation, and compilation engagements, the CPA performing the engagement should complete the Electronic Engagement Approval Form on the legislative auditor’s Web site. To submit, click here and fill in all the blanks, including name of entity, entity ID number, CPA Firm and CPA Contact ID numbers, contact person and title, address, phone, fax and email for the entity and the CPA. If you do not know the entity ID number, CPA Firm and/or CPA Contact ID numbers, please call (225) 339-3814.   Confirmation that the engagement has been approved will be sent to all email addresses provided in the form.

When requesting engagement approval, it is not necessary to send the legislative auditor a copy of the written engagement agreement. However, the Louisiana Governmental Audit Guide discusses specific elements that must be included in the written engagement agreement between the CPA and the client. Sample agreements that include all of the required elements may be found on the Local Government/Audit Tools/CPA Government & Audit Aids page of this Web site, and in Appendix B of the Louisiana Governmental Audit Guide.  By submitting the engagement approval form the agency and CPA are confirming to the legislative auditor that a formal, written engagement agreement has been entered into and has been jointly signed by the CPA and the agency; and that the engagement agreement complies with all provisions of the Louisiana Governmental Audit Guide.

Electronic engagement approval forms are generally processed within 5 – 7 business days after receipt of the request. After the approved form is returned to the CPA, the CPA should contact our file room at 225-339-3822 to request any audit data that may be on file. In addition, it is the CPA’s responsibility to copy the appropriate questionnaire from Appendix A of the Louisiana Governmental Audit Guide and have the questionnaire completed by the client. Should the legislative auditor deny an engagement request, the client and the CPA will be provided a written reason for denial.

NON-ROUTINE ENGAGEMENTS: For non-routine engagements, such as Agreed Upon Procedures, Program Audits, Fund Audits, Internal Control or Compliance Audits, and Attest or Assurance engagements that are not required by Louisiana Revised Statute 24:513 or 24:514, the CPA and the client have a joint responsibility to send one copy of the written engagement agreement to the legislative auditor for approval, prior to the start of the engagement.

Non-routine engagement agreements will generally be processed within 5 – 7 business days of receipt. The legislative auditor will return copies of the approved engagement agreement to the CPA and the client.

ENFORCEMENT ACTIVITES: By state law, audits, reviews, and compilations/attestations of local government and quasi-public entities must be completed within six months of the close of the entity’s fiscal year. Periodically, the legislative auditor corresponds with CPAs and entities in an effort to enforce the timeliness provisions of the state audit law. You may contact Suzanne Elliott at (225) 339-3802 if you have questions concerning these enforcement provisions.

Suzanne Elliott (225) 339-3802, selliott@lla.la.gov.