Compilation Report On Audit Recommendations
Auditor General Heather Thomas released a “compilation report on the status of Audit Recommendations from Selected Government-Related Entities.
A spokesperson said, “A financial statement audit report package includes audit recommendations to address a risk or close a gap or deficiency identified through the audit.”
“The report contains a compilation of twenty management self-assessment from selected entities for the years ended 2012 to 2019, resulting in 126 audit recommendations.”
The Auditor General said, “The audit recommendation is the guidance given to address a matter raised. Audit recommendations are the vehicles by which audits can truly add value. But it is the actions on audit recommendations – not the audit recommendations themselves that promote improvement in the Government of Bermuda’s financial administration.”
“Management is ultimately responsible and accountable for resolving and implementing audit recommendations. At the same time as the Legislative Auditor, I have a duty to follow-up to see that action is taken and the intended results are realised. Due to the backlog in accounts being presented to my office, following-up on the status of audit recommendations implementations has not been timely. Follow up reports, such as this will go a long way to ensure audit recommendations are implemented timely.”
“The entities included in this report reported roughly $2.4 billion of entrusted assets and $0.2 billion in obligations owed. Management reported that 98 of the 126 [or 78%] audit recommendations were fully or partially implemented; this is encouraging. 18 of the 126 [14%] had no action taken. I will follow up as necessary on all audit recommendations.”
The report follows below [PDF here]:
What is sad is that the Government paid millions for a central accounting system that does not seem to be used by every Government entity. Why are all entities not on the system? A uniform accounting system has all the checks and balances built in.
Simple example: You cannot pay an invoice from a vendor unless it matches an approved Purchase Order. A Purchase Order has an approval process that must be followed and signed off by those with the spending authority. An audit trail is produced for each step in the process.
How is it that people are not fired for not having simple things like Policies and Procedures in place? Not fired for being behind in closing out years of financials? Not fired for not having documentation to support transactions?
Question: Why not outsource the work to a third party who would enter in all the required transactions, process the paperwork, follow a uniform set of Policies and Procedures, etc.???? Centralize the work flow. WHY NOT???
Fire the people who cannot do their jobs properly and spend their salaries on a qualified third-party accounting firm.
“I will follow up as necessary on all audit recommendations.”
Please do.