Audit Objective 

Determine whether Harborfields Central School District (District) officials appropriately tracked, inventoried and safeguarded information technology (IT) assets acquired or in use during the audit period. 

Key Findings 

District officials did not always ensure that IT assets were appropriately tracked, inventoried and safeguarded. Complete, accurate and up-to-date inventory records help District officials ensure that IT assets are properly insured, tracked through their life cycle and replaced as necessary. As a result, when inventory records are incomplete and assets are not properly accounted for, District officials cannot assure taxpayers that the $3.9 million invested in IT assets has been appropriately safeguarded. For example, we selected 50 of the District’s IT assets to locate the assets and confirm they were accounted for and determined that: 

• 13 IT assets, including laptops and tablets, that cost $4,300 could not be located. 
• Five Wi-Fi access point devices that cost $4,100 were not listed in the District’s inventory records. 

Further, an additional 13 desktop computers that officials indicated were 10 years old were also not properly reported in the District’s official inventory records. Officials were unable to provide acquisition information for the computers; therefore, we could not confirm their age or determine their cost.

Key Recommendations 

• Maintain complete, current and accurate inventory records. 

District officials agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.