Report Summary
Management Letter
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1999
Key Findings and Recommendations:
- Many Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) campuses are not reconciling bank statements to accounting records in a timely manner. As of September 1999, the June 30 campus accounting records differed from bank balances by approximately $3.7 million. As of January 2000, only about 50 percent of the campuses had reconciled their bank accounts during the previous three months. Untimely and incomplete reconciliations of bank statements to the accounting system negatively impact the integrity and reliability of MnSCU's financial reporting process. We recommended that the MnSCU system office continue to provide oversight and direction to ensure that MnSCU campuses complete timely reconciliations of bank statements to the accounting system. (Finding 1, page 3)
- MnSCU and the administrator of the individual retirement account plan did not refund excess administrative fees, currently valued at approximately $547,000, to plan participants in a timely manner. These refunds are attributable to excess administrative fees charged to plan participants of the State University System in fiscal year 1994 and earlier. We recommended that MnSCU and the plan administrator identify the current and former plan participants and refund the administrative fees. (Finding 2, page 6)
- Internal controls over federal work study at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) need improvement. The weaknesses, including inadequate documentation at MCTC, resulted in questioned costs. We recommended that MCTC strengthen procedures to comply with documentation requirements. (Finding 3, page 6)
Management letters address internal control weaknesses and noncompliance issues found during our annual audit of the state's financial statements and federal programs. The scope of work in individual agencies is limited. During the fiscal year 1999 audit of MnSCU, our scope included tuition and fees, construction expenditures, federal student financial aid, and material revenue, expenditure, and asset balances in the MnSCU Enterprise Activities, Supplemental Retirement, and Agency Funds. The department's response to our recommendations is included in the report.