An early June report from Connecticut’s auditor office about the state’s Department of Education (SDE), revealed “identified control deficiencies; instances of noncompliance laws, regulations or policies and need for improvement to practices and procedures that warrant management attention.”

Multiple findings cover payroll issues, information technology, inadequate oversight of boards and commissions, problems with inventory controls and procurement issues. Many of the problems focus on lack of policy and practice updates, internal control weakness and lax oversight.

For example, the state mandates that agencies conduct complete physical inventories of all property by the end of the fiscal year. That’s a sensible way to ensure that the state has complete property control records, but the auditor’s office found otherwise. The audit states that SDE “has not conducted a complete physical inventory since the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015.” As a result “There is less assurance that the department secured and accounted for its assets, leaving state property susceptible to loss, theft, or fraud.”

Similarly, “SDE was unable to provide a complete software inventory listing with the required categories for the audited period. SDE also did not conduct an annual inventory of its software assets,” according to the report.

As a result, the auditor’s office stated “Incomplete software inventory records may lead to inaccurate reporting and reduce the department’s ability to adequately monitor, control, and track software use and ownership”

There are other problems, as well. As the report states, “The department has also not updated its Internal Inventory Procedures Manual since September 1, 2011, and it does not reflect current practices.” The lack of prompt updating to changes in practice or law can weaken internal control and significant delay of revisions “may also lead to improper actions by employees.” 

While some of the findings of the audit were new, others have been reported in past years but are still considered problematic.

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