Finding 504820 (2022-005)

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 41 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.