FAC Explorer

Finding 1227298 (2025-002)

Material Weakness Repeat Finding
Requirement
ABEILN
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2025
Accepted
2026-08-19
Audit: 409408
Organization: Columbus Community School District (IA)
Auditor: NOLTE CORNMAN & JOHNSON PC

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: One employee has too much control over critical financial areas, increasing the risk of errors or fraud.
  • Impacted Requirements: This violates the principle of segregation of duties, which is essential for effective internal controls.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Review and redistribute responsibilities to ensure no single employee manages incompatible duties.

Finding Text

One important aspect of the internal control structure is the segregation of duties among employees to prevent an individual employee from handling duties which are incompatible. We noted one individual has control over portions of one or more of the following areas for the District relating to major federal programs; cash, investments, inventories, receipts, disbursements, payroll, wire transfers, financial reporting, computer systems, school lunch program and journal entries. See finding 2025-001.

Corrective Action Plan

The district continues to find solutions to help segregate duties with our minimally staffed central office (business manager, HR director & nutrition director). We modified duties of our building secretaries due to being short staffed. This eliminated an additional check & balance measure added a few years ago of the secretary entering receipts into WebLink. The building secretaries continue to write deposit slips & post payment to our student information system. The district’s business manager & HR director will work with board members on the finance & negotiations committee to develop a plan to add more checks & balances to our current operation. We will use the segregation of duties handbook to help with this process.

Categories

Internal Control / Segregation of Duties Reporting

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 1227295 2025-002
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1227296 2025-002
    Material Weakness Repeat
  • 1227297 2025-002
    Material Weakness Repeat

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
10.555 NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM $370,369
84.010 TITLE I GRANTS TO LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES $194,576
84.425 EDUCATION STABILIZATION FUND $97,284
10.553 SCHOOL BREAKFAST PROGRAM $93,835
84.334 GAINING EARLY AWARENESS AND READINESS FOR UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS $74,211
84.027 SPECIAL EDUCATION GRANTS TO STATES $36,007
84.367 SUPPORTING EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION STATE GRANTS (FORMERLY IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY STATE GRANTS) $28,178
84.424 STUDENT SUPPORT AND ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT PROGRAM $23,247
10.582 FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PROGRAM $17,229
21.027 CORONAVIRUS STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL RECOVERY FUNDS $12,123
84.048 CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION -- BASIC GRANTS TO STATES $7,068
10.559 SUMMER FOOD SERVICE PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN $6,102
84.365 ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACQUISITION STATE GRANTS $92