HomeMy WebLinkAboutFCS-14-108 - 2nd Quarter Audit Status ReportStaff Report
rR finance and Corporate Services Department www.kitchener.ca
REPORT TO: Audit Committee
DATE OF MEETING: June 30, 2014
SUBMITTED BY: Corina Tasker, Internal Auditor, 519 - 741 -2200 ext. 7361
PREPARED BY: Corina Tasker, Internal Auditor, 519 - 741 -2200 ext. 7361
WARD(S) INVOLVED: ALL
DATE OF REPORT: June 20, 2014
REPORT NO.: FCS -14 -108
SUBJECT: 2 "d QUARTER AUDIT STATUS REPORT
RECOMMENDATION:
For information only.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The following report provides a summary of the Internal Audit activities completed during the
period of March 2014 to June 2014. The chart below shows the audits and other work
contained in this report.
The following items are currently in progress and will be brought forward at a future audit
committee meeting in 2014:
Purchasing comprehensive audit
BACKGROUND:
The Internal Audit 2014 work plan was approved during the audit committee meeting held on
December 9, 2013. This report provides a summary of the work completed during the 2nd
quarter of 2014.
2 -1
REPORT:
1. Kitchener Market — Capacity Review
Status: Complete, March 22, 2014
Audit Objectives
To analyze current work volumes and distribution between staff to determine if the most
appropriate organizational structure and staffing levels are being used.
Methodology
• Interviews were conducted with 7 staff to gain an understanding of what their role is,
strengths and weaknesses within the division, and what can be improved
• Interviews were conducted with Facilities Management (Security, Building Maintenance) and
Fire to understand the interactions between the divisions and where improvements could be
made
• Discussions with Human Resources regarding resourcing strategies and constraints
• Office staff tracked their time over the course of a month
• Time tracking data was analyzed to determine capacity
Findings and Recommendations
Capacity Analysis
The market operates with 4 full -time staff (including the manager, 2 office staff, and 1 custodian)
and 13 part -time staff who mostly work on Saturdays to support the farmer's market activity.
Prior to the introduction of the Market Place (where the rentals, events and classes take place)
the market had 5 full -time staff, but due to budget cuts this was reduced to 4 staff.
The market staff appears to be overwhelmed by all of the work associated with their positions.
In order to gain a better understanding of what they are doing on a daily basis and assess
whether more staff are required, a capacity analysis was undertaken. The office staff (including
the manager) were asked to track their time for a period of one month. All activities were then
entered into a spreadsheet and summarized. The following observations were made:
• The breadth of administrative and customer service tasks is large, requiring skills in many
different areas
• There are several strategic level tasks not being done by the manager due to workload
issues.
• The full -time office staff regularly do not have time to take breaks or lunches, and work
unpaid over time
• The average unpaid overtime worked by the full time office staff equates to an additional 6.7
hours per day which is essentially the equivalent of one FTE. If this overtime could be
alleviated through a combination of efficiency improvements, redistribution of tasks, and
additional staff, the existing staff would have time to take their lunch breaks.
2-2
It is clear that the Program Assistant position has too much workload. The data supports this
assertion as does the frequent turnover in the position and the amount of administrative work
picked up by the manager and the programming and business development coordinator.
It is recommended that a part -time position be created which has the same job description as
the program assistant. The position would work Tuesday to Friday (4 hour shifts covering the
lunch hour), and Saturday, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. (with a 1 hour lunch). Shifts could be flexible to
allow coverage for hosting Sunday bookings if required.
Creating this new position would have the following benefits:
• alleviate workload from the full -time program assistant, allowing for regular breaks and lunch
and hopefully decrease turnover
• alleviate the need for the manager and program & development coordinator to spend time
doing administrative tasks in an effort to help out, allowing them to focus on their own work
such as strategic planning, programming, and sales
• provide coverage for the phone and window for lunch breaks
• provide staffing for Sunday events
Options for resourcing this position will be discussed by management which may include
repurposing existing headcount through vacancy management.
Changes requiring discussion between HR and the Unions
In preparation for creating a part time program assistant position it is recommended that Human
Resources (employee relations) address with the applicable union, the requirements of this
position having responsibility to enter program registrations into CLASS. This would be similar
to the current arrangement in place at community centres with similar type part time employees.
This is preferred in order to provide better customer service, improve efficiency and decrease
the workload on the program & development coordinator position.
Another change requiring discussion with the applicable union relates to the maintenance of the
market building. Currently, due to collective agreement jurisdictional rights, the market staff are
not permitted to make minor fixes and must initiate an FM work order every time something
needs fixing. This is inefficient as the request waits in the queue with many other work orders
from across the corporation. When interviewed FM also voiced a concern that they should not
be required to come out to fix such minor things and that market staff should be given the
authority to do so.
It is recommended that Human Resources (employee relations and salary admin /job evaluation)
meet with FM and Market management to discuss the specific work requirements in order to
determine an approach for discussion and possible resolve with the applicable union.
Some examples listed by FM included things like trouble shooting problems and small repairs
not involving electrical or plumbing.
2 -3
Purpose of the Market
There is a perception held by many outside the market that the market is an "enterprise" and
thus should make a net profit. Instead it receives a subsidy from the City to provide:
• Saturday farmer's market (7a.m. — 2 p.m.)
• Saturday crafter vendors
• International food court (Tues. — Fri., 8 a.m. — 3 p.m.; Sat. 7 a.m. — 2 p.m.)
• Market Place — rentals and cooking classes (year round)
• Rental venue for community events (similar to community centres)
In 2013 the market staff planned and managed 96 rentals, 90 events, and 50 classes /
programs in addition to managing the food court and Saturday market. Because of this
incongruity between perception and reality the market is consistently pressured to improve its
financial results. This makes it difficult to ask for new funding to expand or enhance
programming, amenities, or marketing.
It is recommended that Council and senior management clearly articulate the purpose and
vision of the market. The answer will shape how resources are allocated to the Market in the
future.
Maintenance Strategy
There are three City units which operate in the Market: Facilities Management, Parking
Enterprise, and the Market. It is sometimes unclear who has responsibility for things such as
capital upgrades and repairs, particularly with respect to the parking garage. There is a risk of
sub - optimal decisions being made on a reactive basis if there is no clear accountability in this
area.
It is recommended that a maintenance strategy be created through the joint efforts of
Facilities Management, Parking Enterprise and the Market. The strategy should outline roles
and responsibilities regarding capital projects and ongoing maintenance of the market
building and parking facilities.
Conclusion
Staff are struggling with workload and feel the need to work through lunches, breaks and
incur unpaid overtime in order to get the job done to provide the best customer service they
can and have the market be a success. There is frequent turnover in the unit due to the
demands of the work which contributes to the stress and workload. Something needs to be
done before more staff burn -out and leave. It is recommended that in order for the market to
continue and to grow in the future more resources are required. At a minimum more
administrative support is required at this time. Once the new part -time program assistant
position has been established and activities distributed, capacity should be informally
assessed by the unit to determine if this has alleviated the workload issues. If not, then more
consideration and analysis should be done to identify process improvements and / or service
level reductions.
2 -4
2. Cash Deposits - Controls Audit
Status: Complete, June 17, 2014
Overview
Research from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners found that, on average, 7% of
revenues are lost every year due to theft or fraud. The research also states that 75% of
employees have stolen at least once from their employer and 37.5% of employees have stolen at
least twice. These statistics highlight the need for stringent internal controls to eliminate or at least
reduce the opportunities for employee theft.
In the past Internal Audit has undertaken a number of different reviews related to cash
management including annual petty cash audits, and specific reviews of cash handling and
deposit processes for a number of locations.
Multiple divisions across the City of Kitchener receive cash from customers for goods or services.
There is a wide range of processes and systems used to record these transactions and prepare
the cash for deposit to the bank. In general cash is much easier medium for theft compared to
cheques, credit or debit transactions. In 2013 the City deposited $7.3M in cash transactions.
It was also unclear what role Accounting staff were to play in monitoring and testing for
compliance with procedures for cash deposits vs. what role internal audit should play.
Objectives
The objective of this review is to document the cash handling, recording and reconciliation
processes across all City locations where cash transactions are made in order to assess whether
adequate controls exist within the process. The roles and responsibilities of the business units,
Accounting and Internal Audit will be clarified regarding monitoring and testing for compliance
within the process.
Scope
This review included reviewing all areas which make cash deposits. It did not include looking at
controls related to cheques, debit, wire transfer or credit card transactions.
Initial Risk Assessment
A report was run from the deposit system to display all cash deposits for 2013 by location. This
list included 44 locations which were then further prioritized as follows by the perceived amount of
risk at each location.
Initial Risk
Assessment
Criteria
Action
High
. high volume, low transaction
• Interview manager and /or
dollar, over the counter with no
staff regarding process;
receipt necessarily expected;
document
• OR requested by management
. sample transactions
due to known control
weaknesses
2 -5
Medium
• high total dollars ( >$5K), most
• Interview manager and /or
$267,706
likely linked to a point of sale
staff regarding process;
Clerks
system and / or receipts of
document
$14,419
some sort
• Sample transaction only if
Arenas
$561,006
process / control points
$67,503
Special Events
appear weak
Low
• low dollars ( <$5K), low
• No action; out of scope
frequency;
• OR have been reviewed in
detail previously with no known
control weaknesses
Note: after completing the interviews it was apparent that sampling transactions would
not uncover any theft due to the nature of the control weaknesses. Therefore this was
not done.
The following charts show the divisions which fit into each initial risk assessment category:
A: Areas of high risk
Division
Total 2013 cash deposits
Community centres
$267,706
Pools
$326,802
Clerks
$116,906
Community Services on 7t
$14,419
Market
$80,700
Arenas
$561,006
Rockway centre
$67,503
Special Events
$11,435
B: Areas of medium risk
Division
Total 2013 cash deposits
Cemeteries
$64,060
Golf
$538,066
Enforcement
$17,498
Operations
$8,347
Purchasing
$5,975
C: Areas of low risk
Division
Total 2013 cash deposits
Accounting
$4,492
Building & Planning
$70,773
Economic Development
$600
Engineering
$665
Facilities Management
$874
I.T.
$71
Legal
$45
2 -6
Parking
$996,890
Revenue
$4,114,052
Small Business Centre
$2,591
Transportation Planning
$340
Welcome Centre
$639
Methodology
• Interviews with staff in each high and medium risk location who process deposits to
determine:
• what their deposit process is
• what the control points are
• whether they have had any issues or concerns with the process
• Interviews with accounting regarding risks and opportunities from their perspective
• Comparison of control points to best practice
Findings and Recommendations
Assessed Risk
After documenting the cash processes and control points for each location, an assessment of the
actual risk was made based on the following criteria:
Assessed Risk
Criteria
High
Risk of theft due to inadequate controls and >$1000 / year exposure
Medium
Risk of theft due to inadequate controls and <$1000 / year exposure
Low
No risk of theft OR very low exposure
Since there are no reports which can show total cash sales by revenue type and location, the
potential exposure was estimated using a multi -step process:
1. Determine the ratio of cash sales to total sales for the location.
2. Determine the total sales for the particular revenue type for the location.
3. Calculate the estimated amount of cash sales for the particular revenue type:
• sales for revenue type X (cash sales for location / total sales for location)
• For revenue types which deal strictly in cash (i.e. lockers, vending machines) a rate of
100% was used
4. Multiply the estimated amount of cash sales by the average employee theft rate of 7 %. This
equals the estimated exposure.
2 -7
The following chart shows a summary of the number of locations in each risk level for the initial
and assessed risks, as well as the total potential exposure for each category.
Risk Level
Initial Risk
# of locations
Assessed Risk
# of locations
Annual Exposure
High
27
9
$23,197
Medium
5
8
$2,158
Low
12
27
Minimal
Total
44
44
$25,355
Findings
For the most part divisions have adequate controls in place to protect cash. They use point of sale
terminals in a lot of locations, with only a few locations still using manual paper based processes.
The point of sale system allows for receipts to be printed for the customer and for a daily cash
balance report to be printed which indicates how much cash should be there. In addition, in many
cases there are additional controls which ensure that the transaction is input to the point of sale
terminal in the first place. For the locations using paper processes, most use numbered triplicate
or duplicate receipt books which are reconciled back to the deposit, ensuring that all receipts are
accounted for.
It was found that there are some areas of risk of theft of cash however. Any transactions which
are low dollars and high frequency where the customer is not expecting a receipt are a potential
for theft as the employee could pocket the cash and not input the transaction to the point of sale
system. Similarly any transactions which do not require input to a supplementary system or
inventory record have the potential for staff to pocket the cash, steal the merchandise or give free
services / merchandise to friends. There were only a few situations where there is the opportunity
for volunteers to steal from the programs they are running.
Recommendations
Despite these control weaknesses, the exposure for any one location is not high. On an annual
basis, though, the risk exposure is approximately $25K based on the 7% theft statistic. The theft
statistic is only an average though, and our exposure could be much higher and we would not
even know it. The nature of these control weaknesses would allow for theft to go undetected
unless other staff witnessed the actual theft of the cash. Any theft of City assets is unacceptable
and should be mitigated if possible.
It is therefore recommended that all control weaknesses that have been identified be
examined by management to determine if controls can be implemented in a cost effective
manner that does not adversely affect the delivery of the program or services. Sometimes
management may need to accept the risk if the cost to correct the control weakness outweighs the
estimated exposure.
Specific recommendations for each location have been shared with management.
2 -8
Roles and Responsibilities
As part of this audit the role of Accounting was reviewed. It is Accounting's responsibility to
reconcile the bank statements to the deposit system to ensure that what was actually deposited at
the bank matches our internal records. The main two types of variances which occur include
users choosing the wrong account in the deposit system (i.e. choosing a clearing account instead
of a bank account) or timing differences between when the entry was input to the deposit system
and when the bank processed it. Accounting has also come across situations where HST was not
charged when it should have been or refunds to the customer were not being coded correctly as a
negative deposit.
There is currently no process apart from this one -time audit to ensure that each location is taking
adequate steps to safe guard their cash. Given that the control weaknesses are such that theft
would not be identified through sampling it is not recommended that Accounting take on any role
related to periodic testing. It is recommended that Internal Audit perform follow up audits every 3-
5 years to ensure that processes and controls are adequate.
Conclusion
This review has identified a few areas where controls around cash should be tightened. The
overall exposure is not significant but should be mitigated where possible. It will be left to
management to decide whether it makes sense to invest the time and resources into improved
controls or whether to accept the risk of theft.
Management from each of the locations which had specific recommendations will be required to
provide a management response and action plan to the Internal Auditor within 3 months of receipt
of this report.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
Work falls within the Efficient and Effective Government plan foundation area of the Strategic
Plan. The goal of Internal Audit work and service reviews is to protect the City's interests and
assets through
ensuring compliance with policy, procedures and legislation
ensuring adequate controls are in place to protect our assets
ensuring our operations are as efficient and effective as possible
This helps support the financial goal of long term financial stability and fiscal accountability to
our taxpayers.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
While there are no immediate financial implications related to this report, the addition of a
part -time position at the market may require additional funding, depending on how
management decides to resource the position. The manner in which this position is funded
will be left to the discretion of the management team and could include existing program
funding, partnerships with other divisions, or new operating budget requests.
2 -9
The recommendations related to the cash deposits audit may require additional time and
effort on the part of staff but should not incur additional out of pocket costs.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
Members of the community have been informed of the results of this audit status report
through the posting of this report on the internet on June 25, 2014.
ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Dan Chapman, Deputy CAO, Finance and Corporate
Services
2 -10
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