[read complete report - pdf]

Audit Objective

Determine whether:

• Goods and services were procured in a manner consistent with the procurement policy.
• Cash disbursements were properly supported and approved.
• The President’s salary and benefits were in accordance with his employment contract.

Key Findings

• Officials could not demonstrate that they complied with competitive bidding statutes when awarding two contracts totaling $549,000 and did not seek competition as required by the procurement policy for five professional service contracts totaling $2.8 million and nine purchases totaling $125,000.
• The Board has not sufficiently segregated cash disbursement duties and has not established adequate compensating controls such as an independent claims audit function.
• The President received approximately $142,000 in monetary benefits over six years that were not clearly stated by his employment contract.

Key Recommendations

• Require the purchasing agent to monitor compliance with the procurement policy and statutory bidding requirements.
• Ensure cash disbursement duties are adequately segregated and/or adequate compensating controls are in place.
• Clearly document all Board-approved compensation and benefits in the President’s employment contract.

College officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to take corrective action. Appendix B includes our comments on issues raised in the College’s response.