Quality of Internal Control Certifications (Follow-Up)

Issued Date
July 07, 2015
Agency/Authority
Budget, Division of the

Purpose

In 2012, we conducted a series of audits at 12 State agencies focusing specifically on their 2011-2012 Internal Control Certifications submitted to the Division of the Budget (DOB). We examined whether these agencies submitted their certifications on time, answered all the questions with the appropriate level of detail, and maintained documentation supporting the answers given. The 12 audits were performed at the following agencies:

  • Department of Agriculture and Markets (2012-S-47)
  • Department of Economic Development (2012-S-48)
  • State Education Department (2012-S-45)
  • Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) (2012-S-31)
  • Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) (2012-S-46)
  • Office of Mental Health (2012-S-43)
  • Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) (2012-S-49)
  • Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (2012-S-44)
  • Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence (2012-S-41)
  • Division of State Police (DSP) (2012-S-128)
  • Department of State (2012-S- 50)
  • Office of the Welfare Inspector General (OWIG) (2012-S-42)

The objective of our follow-up was to determine the degree of implementation by each agency in submitting their 2013-14 Internal Control Certifications of the seven common recommendations included in our series of reports.

Background

Our initial audit reports concluded that improvements were needed to the quality of Internal Control Certifications at 10 of the 12 agencies. We found instances where Internal Control Certifications were not submitted timely and/or did not provide the appropriate level of detail, as well as cases where agencies were unable to support important statements or assertions they made. We also found instances where Internal Audit units had not had a periodic external quality assessment as required by audit standards; where duties associated with the internal control and internal audit functions were not properly separated; and a lack of agency-wide internal control training.

Key Findings

Agency officials made significant progress in addressing the problems we identified in the initial audit reports. Of 12 agencies originally audited, two (OMIG and OWIG) had no prior recommendations, seven have implemented all of our recommendations and only three (DHCR, OPRHP and DSP) still have work left to do. In total, of the 23 recommendations included in our original audit reports, 19 were implemented, 3 were partially implemented, and 1 was not implemented.

Key Recommendation

Officials are given 30 days after the issuance of the follow-up review to provide information on any actions that are planned to address the unresolved issues discussed in this review.

John Buyce

State Government Accountability Contact Information:
Audit Director: John Buyce
Phone: (518) 474-3271; Email: [email protected]
Address: Office of the State Comptroller; Division of State Government Accountability; 110 State Street, 11th Floor; Albany, NY 12236