| Public Release Date: February 11, 1999 | No. 99-9 |
The Teachers Retirement Association (TRA) is the administrator of a multi-employer, cost sharing defined benefit fund. Its function is to provide a secure and dependable source of retirement income for its members or beneficiaries as a result of retirement, disability, or death. TRA's assets as of June 30, 1998, were approximately $15.3 billion.
The primary objective of our audit was to render an opinion on the Teachers Retirement Association's financial statements. These statements are included in both TRA's and the State of Minnesota's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports for fiscal year 1998. This objective included whether TRA's financial statements present fairly its financial position and results of operations in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.
As part of our work, we are required to gain an understanding of the internal control structure and ascertain whether TRA complied with laws and regulations that may have a material effect on its financial statements. During our audit, we gained an understanding of the contributions, annuities and refund control cycles, and the financial statement preparation process.
TRA's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the year ended June 30, 1998, includes our qualified audit opinion dated December 1, 1998. TRA's financial statements were fairly presented; however, we qualified our report because sufficient audit evidence did not exist to verify TRA's disclosures with respect to the year 2000. We do not provide assurance that TRA is or will be year 2000 ready, that its year 2000 remediation efforts will be successful in whole or in part, or that parties with which TRA does business will be year 2000 ready. TRA designed and implemented management controls to provide reasonable assurance that it properly administered its material financial activities, except that it did not adequately safeguard certain benefit checks. TRA complied with material financial legal provisions for the items tested.
TRA agreed with our finding and has taken action to resolve the issue.
