Finding Text
Condition: The County’s offices are not large enough to permit an adequate segregation of duties for
effective internal controls. Management has not separated incompatible activities of personnel,
thereby creating risks related to the safeguarding of cash and the accuracy of the financial
statements.
Criteria: Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining internal control. A good system of
internal control provides for adequate segregation of duties so no one individual handles a
transaction from its inception to completion. In order to maintain proper internal control, duties
should be segregated so the authorization, custody and recording of transactions are not under
the control of the same employee. This segregation of duties helps prevent losses from employee
error or dishonesty and maximizes the accuracy of the County’s financial statements.
Cause: The concentration of closely related duties and responsibilities such as the recording and
processing of cash receipts, preparing grant expenditure reports, preparing financial information
for posting and analyzing financial information by a small staff makes it impossible to establish
an adequate system of automatic internal checks on the accuracy and reliability of the accounting
records.
Effect: This deficiency results in a reasonable possibility that the County would not be able to detect
misstatements that would be material in relation to the financial statements and/or federal award
programs in a timely period by employees in the normal course of performing their assigned
functions.
Recommendation: The County should review the operating procedures of the County offices to obtain the maximum
internal control possible under the circumstances utilizing currently available staff, including
elected officials. While we do recognize that the County is not large enough to permit a
segregation of duties for effective internal controls, we believe it is important the Board be aware
that this condition does exist.
Repeat Finding: Yes.
Views of Responsible
Officials and Planned
Corrective Actions: Management is cognizant of this limitation and will implement additional procedures where
possible.