What the auditor found

The North Carolina Office of the State Auditor found that Durham Technical Community College misstated its finances by more than $15 million, the second consecutive audit cycle in which the college failed to accurately report its financial position.

The 2025 report determined Durham Tech had not fully acted on prior audit recommendations, and the misstatements grew from the earlier cycle. Three errors drove the bulk of the gap: depreciable capital assets overstated by $3.1 million because the disposal of two buildings in 2024 was never recorded; county capital aid overstated by $2 million due to misclassified revenues and incorrect journal entries; and construction in progress overstated by $1.1 million because repair costs that should have been expensed were capitalized instead.

Why it happened

Auditors traced the errors to two root causes: a lack of succession planning and the college's failure to design and implement year-end financial procedures. The findings echo what state auditors flagged in 2023, when Durham Tech first drew scrutiny for inadequate internal controls. The college did not fully carry out the fixes it was given after that earlier review.

"Our audit found the reporting errors occurred due to a lack of succession planning and the college did not design and implement year end procedures," the auditor's office said. "For the second audit in a row, the team has identified millions of dollars of misstatements. Fixing these issues must be top of mind for the college as degradation of financial integrity can negatively impact students and faculty."

How Durham Tech responded

The college accepted the findings. Durham Tech said the errors were mostly tied to year-end financial statement adjustments required for external reporting and did not affect internal management decisions. Still, the college acknowledged the misstatements came from inadequate controls.

Durham Tech committed to updating year-end procedures, expanding staff training, overhauling management and supervision of business office operations, and bringing in external accounting expertise to support the year-end close-out and financial reporting process.