| Public Release Date: August 7, 1998 | No. 98-43 |
Anoka Ramsey Community College was created in 1965. It is a multi-campus institution with campuses in Coon Rapids and Cambridge. The college was under the jurisdiction of the State Board for Community Colleges until the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) began operations on July 1, 1995. Dr. Patrick Johns has served as college president since April 1991. Dr. Dennis Adams has been the vice president at the Cambridge campus since August 1996.
The Coon Rapids and Cambridge campuses operate quite independently. Each campus has its own business office, financial aid office, and bookstore. However, the Coon Rapids campus provides some administrative services for the Cambridge campus in the areas of payroll, personnel, federal reporting, and federal cash requests.
We have audited Anoka Ramsey Community College for the period July 1, 1995, through June 30, 1997. Our audit scope included the following areas: general financial management, tuition and fee revenue, bookstore operations, payroll expenditures, and supplies and equipment expenditures. We also reviewed the college's internal controls over compliance with federal student financial aid for fiscal year 1998.
Anoka Ramsey Community College operated within its available resources. However, the Coon Rapids and Cambridge campuses did not use MnSCU accounting as the primary accounting system for some local activities. In addition, the campuses updated some financial information on MnSCU accounting only once a month. The Cambridge campus did not promptly record tuition and fee revenues on the MnSCU accounting system. The Coon Rapids campus had unreconciled differences between its bank statements and MnSCU accounting totals, and it did not have a comprehensive set of accounting records for federal financial aid.
We also found that the college did not maintain adequate separations of duties in several of its financial areas. The college did not adequately limit computer system access to those functions needed to perform job duties. In addition, the Coon Rapids campus had inadequate separation of duties over tuition, continuing education, and its bookstore.
In its written response, Anoka Ramsey Community College agreed with the audit report. The response indicated that the college has already implemented changes to address many of the issues in the report.
