| Public Release Date: October 18, 1996 | No. 96-42 |
Normandale Community College is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System (MnSCU). MnSCU began operations on July 1, 1995, when the community colleges, state universities, and technical colleges merged. Normandale Community College is a two-year college located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Approximately 8,000 students attended Normandale during the 1995-96 school year. This equals approximately 4,700 FTE (full-time equivalent) students. Thomas Horak is the president of Normandale Community College.
During fiscal year 1996, the college used a combination of the MAPS accounting system, the MnSCU accounting system, and manual records to record its financial activities. As part of its merger, MnSCU developed a new accounting system (MnSCU accounting system). At the same time, the state implemented a new accounting and procurement system (MAPS). During fiscal year 1996, Normandale Community College was not yet recording all of its financial activity on the MnSCU accounting system. As a result, we did not use the accounting information recorded on the MnSCU accounting system as a basis for our audit. Rather, we used accounting information from MAPS and the manual records maintained by the college.
Normandale Community College collected $9.7 million in tuition and fee revenue during fiscal year 1996. Generally, we found that the college promptly deposited tuition receipts and recorded them in the MAPS accounting system. However, we found that the college had not adequately separated duties over continuing education revenues.
The college spends approximately two-thirds of its operating budget for payroll costs. We found that the college complied with the relevant provisions in the bargaining union agreements relating to full-time employee pay rates and leave accruals. Normandale Community College followed proper procurement procedures for parking and supplies expenditures. In addition, the college properly obtained funding for its parking lot renovations. However, we noted that the college did not verify the receipt of goods from Central Stores before paying for those goods and did not always pay invoices promptly.
Normandale Community College properly recorded bookstore transactions in its manual accounting records. We found that the bookstore's expenses were reasonable and related to the operation of the bookstore. In June 1995, the bookstore transferred $600,000 in bookstore profits to the college's general operating account to supplement college operations. We noted that the college has not recorded its bookstore or other auxiliary enterprise financial activity on the MnSCU accounting system. Also, the college does not adequately control bookstore voids.
