Audit Objective

Determine whether Manhasset Union Free 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 appropriately track or inventory IT assets, maintain complete IT inventory records or establish adequate controls to safeguard IT assets. As a result, officials cannot assure taxpayers that money invested in IT assets has been appropriately spent or safeguarded.

We selected 50 IT assets to confirm their location and that they were inventoried, and 10 additional IT assets to confirm they were inventoried. We found 20 percent of the sampled assets were not properly accounted for. Specifically:

• Six assets (one laptop and five Chromebooks) with a combined value of approximately $2,165 could not be located.
• Six assets (five interactive displays and one Chromebook) with combined purchase prices of approximately $27,800 were not inventoried.

In addition, annual inventories were not adequately conducted, IT equipment was susceptible to environmental damage, and officials did not adopt a comprehensive written policy for establishing and maintaining IT equipment inventory.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure District inventory records are complete and include the detail necessary to adequately track and locate IT assets.
• Perform annual and complete physical inventories and compare results to inventory records.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and have initiated or indicated they planned to initiate corrective action.