FINDING 2022-005
Finding Subject: CDBG ‐ Entitlement Grants Cluster ‐ Period of Performance
Summary of Finding:
The county did not have properly designed internal controls in order to prevent or detect errors in the
general ledger for activities related to adjustments to Community Development
Block ...
FINDING 2022-005
Finding Subject: CDBG ‐ Entitlement Grants Cluster ‐ Period of Performance
Summary of Finding:
The county did not have properly designed internal controls in order to prevent or detect errors in the
general ledger for activities related to adjustments to Community Development
Block Grant funds during the transition and implementation of the Oracle accounting system.
Contact Person Responsible for Corrective Action: Dan Ciecierski, Comptroller
Contact Phone Number and Email Address: 219-755-3137 | ciecidx@lakecountyin.org
Views of Responsible Officials:
We concur with the finding.
Explanation and Reasons for Disagreement:
N/A
Description of Corrective Action Plan:
Lake County has begun execution of a comprehensive strategy in order to address the lack of internal
controls around its financial transactions and reporting in a number of ways. The following will
address control issues identified in these areas:
- Financial Transactions and Reporting
- Employee Benefit Accrual (EBA) Fund
- Cash and Investments
- Receipts
- Journal Entries
- Financial Statement & Reporting
First, a more qualified consulting firm has been hired to assist on two important fronts related to the
new accounting system:
1. The first is the reimplementation of the Oracle accounting software which is inclusive of correcting
data and poor configurations from the prior consultant, and deploying additional appropriate
functionality to allow the County to optimize Oracle to suit the accounting needs from a process
standpoint as well as an internal control perspective. Oracle in and of itself allows the county to
implement strategic preventative internal controls via role-based access features. Said
differently, Oracle has a more robust and granular ability to automatically create separation of
INDIANA STATE BOARD OF ACCOUNTS
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duties among employees and departments simply by restricting the ability to perform actions
which should be naturally segregated to mitigate risk of error.
2. Secondly, the managed services portion of the consulting contract will aid the County in running
the business activities related to both the Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) module and
the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) module (Purchasing, Accounts Receivable, Accounts
Payable, and General Accounting).
Another initiative being executed to address the lack of internal controls is to attract, and hire qualified
professionals who have years of real world, practical experience in the field for which a job relates to.
During the original implementation of the Oracle system there was no one who fully understood, nor
had a background in the professional field of accounting in the Auditor’s Office. The County has hired
a Comptroller who passed the CPA, and has spent their entire career in the field of accounting. This
individual has worked in the corporate utility and banking industries and has experience in GAAP
reporting, regulatory reporting, internal controls, and overall general accounting. Additionally, the
Comptroller has been involved with internal and external audit compliance as well as the installation,
user acceptance testing, and transition of new accounting software. In order to mitigate the risk of
error for any adjusting entries made which are recommended by consultants, the Comptroller of
Finance must review and approve these entries.
Anticipated Completion Date:
1. This process has already been put into place and is being executed.