Office of the Legislative Auditor - Financial Audit Division

Report Summary
Department of Natural Resources – Park Fees and Retail Sales
Internal Controls and Compliance Audit

The Department of Natural Resources (department) oversees the 75 state parks and state recreation areas located throughout Minnesota. To manage and maintain these recreational areas, the department’s Division of Parks and Trails receives approximately 21 percent of its funding from the General Fund, 14 percent from the Parks and Trails Legacy Fund, and the majority of the remaining funds come from the Natural Resources Fund, which includes fees collected at state parks and recreation areas.

The Office of the Legislative Auditor conducted this selected scope audit to determine whether the Department of Natural Resources had adequate internal controls and complied with significant finance-related legal requirements related to receipts collected from state park patrons. The period under examination was July 1, 2016, through January 31, 2019.

Conclusions

Internal Controls

OLA found that internal controls over the areas in our audit scope were generally not adequate to ensure that it safeguarded assets and ensured compliance with applicable legal requirements.

Internal Controls

Specifically, this audit identified internal control weaknesses in the department as follows:

• Finding 1. The Department of Natural Resources did not always ensure employee separation during the receipt process. (p. 9)
• Finding 4. The Department of Natural Resources did not have adequate controls to ensure the accuracy of deposits in the state’s accounting system. (p. 12)
• Finding 5. The Department of Natural Resources did not identify and remove unnecessary access in its point of sale system. (p. 14)
• Finding 7. The Department of Natural Resources did not always perform an annual physical inventory or, when the department completed a physical inventory, it did not always investigate identified differences. (p. 17)

Legal Compliance

The Department of Natural Resources generally complied with most finance-related legal requirements.

Legal Compliance

However, OLA found the following issues of noncompliance, discussed more thoroughly in the findings and recommendations in this report.

• Finding 1. The Department of Natural Resources did not always ensure employee separation during the receipt process. (p. 9)
• Finding 2. The Department of Natural Resources did not always identify and destroy instances of not public data. (p. 10)
• Finding 3. The Department of Natural Resources did not always deposit receipts in accordance with its daily deposit waiver. (p. 11)
• Finding 5. The Department of Natural Resources did not identify and remove unnecessary access in its point of sale system. (p. 14)
• Finding 6. The Department of Natural Resources employees did not always use their own unique login when using the point of sale system. (p. 15)
• Finding 7. The Department of Natural Resources did not always perform an annual physical inventory or, when the department completed a physical inventory, it did not always investigate identified differences. (p. 17)