MnDOT Policies

External Closeout Audit Report Procedures

For External Closeout Audit Report Policy #FM003

Effective Date: June 25, 2025

Print procedures (pdf)

Introduction

This document is the technical companion to the Minnesota Department of Transporation’s (MnDOT’s) External Closeout Audit Report Policy.

These procedures are not applicable to:

• contracts and grant agreements under the thresholds provided below; or
• closeout reviews that the Office of Audit conducts of transit grant recipients that include in-person observations of facilities and selected procedures.

Definitions

Audit

For the purposes of this policy, “audit” is a blanket term used to describe examination, review, and non-attest services provided by the Office of Audit that results in an External Closeout Audit Report.

Requesting Offices

MnDOT offices that administer contracts and grant agreements. The Requesting Offices are responsible for requesting an audit of contracts or grant agreements that they administer at the close of the contract or grant agreement.

Procedures

Submission Process

Before closeout of a contract or grant agreement, the MnDOT office that administers the contract or grant (“Requesting Office”) must submit a request for audit to the Office of Audit.

Thresholds

Requesting Offices may submit contracts and grant agreements for audit that are below the thresholds listed above at their discretion.

Procedures

1. The Requesting Office must submit the request for audit via Workflow or directly to auditfinals.DOT@state.mn.us. Include the final invoice and a brief description of the contract or grant agreement with the request.
2. The Requesting Office should ensure all documents listed on the applicable Office of Audit Final Audit Checklist are available to the Office of Audit in eDOCS, CAATS, Blackcat, or SWIFT. Contact the Office of Audit if documents need to be submitted in another manner.
3. Note: Every effort should be made to provide the Office of Audit with all necessary documentation. If any documents are missing, the Office of Audit will contact the Requesting Office. This will delay the audit process.
4. Requests for audit are typically processed in the order received. Priority requests may be made by the Requesting Office and will be accommodated based on the Office of Audit workload. Contact auditfinals.DOT@state.mn.us to make a request.

Audit Report Communication

• Following completion of the audit, the Office of Audit sends the External Closeout Audit Report (“Report”) to the Requesting Office via Workflow.
• The Requesting Office must review the Report and share the results with the contractor or grantee. If the Requesting Office requires clarification regarding the audit results, they should communicate their questions to the Office of Audit via auditfinals.DOT@state.mn.us.
• If the Requesting Office decides to rebut the results of the audit, it must submit its rebuttal within 60 calendar days of its receipt of the Report.
• If the Office of Audit does not receive a rebuttal request within 60 days of report issuance, it will consider the Report accepted by both the Requesting Office and the contractor or grantee and close the audit.

Rebuttal Process

If the Requesting Office, on behalf of the contractor or grantee, has clear and convincing evidence that the Office of Audit overlooked or inappropriately considered evidence, and that inclusion or alternative interpretation of this evidence could affect the results of the audit, the Requesting Office may submit a rebuttal. While the expectation remains that the Requesting Office will provide all relevant documentation at the outset of the closeout audit, the Office of Audit will consider additional, newly submitted evidence when it underpins the rationale for a rebuttal and the evidence is contemporaneous with the performance of the contract.  The Requesting Office must submit the rebuttal to the Office of Audit within 60 calendar days of the date of the External Closeout Audit Report’s issuance.

The Office of Audit will review the rebuttal and, update the report as warranted. The Office of Audit will inform the Requesting Office of the results of the review and indicate whether the supporting documentation submitted by the contractor or grantee was used in the review. The formal response to the contractor or grantee will include rationale about why the information was or was not applied to the contract. The Office of Audit will not accept additional rebuttals after completion of this review. The Requesting Office may contact auditfinals.DOT@state.mn.us to resolve any outstanding questions.

Administrative Adjustments

Following the rebuttal process, if the Requesting Office makes an administrative adjustment, the Requesting Office must report the adjustment to the Office of Audit by emailing auditfinals.DOT@state.mn.us. The Office of Audit will update the CAATS audit record. The Office of Audit will not review or provide an opinion on specific administrative adjustments.