Report Summary
Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education
Performance Audit
| Financial Audit Division |
March 2024 |
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education (MBFTE) generally did not comply with the significant finance-related legal requirements we tested and generally did not have adequate internal controls. We identified a number of instances of noncompliance and internal control weakness. The more significant weaknesses were in the areas of receipts, and training and aid reimbursements. We also identified some weaknesses for the Department of Public Safety (DPS). The list of findings below and the full report provide more information about these concerns.
Finding 1
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety did not document or retain documentation of preapprovals of employee overtime hours. (p. 15)
Recommendations
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should comply with state policy and the Department of Public Safety’s policy to document and retain overtime preapprovals.
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should strengthen internal controls to ensure it documents and retains overtime documentation.
Finding 2
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety did not document employee eligibility for paid COVID-19 leave, as required by policy. (p. 17)
Recommendations
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should comply with state policies for all paid leave.
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should strengthen internal controls over all types of paid leave to ensure they sufficiently document employee eligibility and management approval for paid leave.
Finding 3
The Department of Public Safety did not require the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education state
purchasing cardholders to receive refresher training or sign use agreements every three years. (p. 20)
Recommendations
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The Department of Public Safety should require all cardholders of state purchasing cards to receive refresher training and sign new use agreements, as required by state policy.
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The Department of Public Safety should strengthen internal controls over state purchasing cards to ensure each cardholder receives refresher training and signs new use agreements every three years.
Finding 4
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety did not always comply with
state policy when using state purchasing cards. (p. 21)
Recommendations
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should ensure they retain the required documentation to support purchasing card transactions.
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should ensure that employees’ purchasing card transactions comply with applicable requirements of state statutes and policy.
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should promptly report all instances of unauthorized transactions to the Office of the Legislative Auditor.
Finding 5
The Department of Public Safety did not have procedures in place to verify whether mileage reported on monthly travel logs was for a business purpose. (p. 23)
Recommendation
The Department of Public Safety should implement procedures to verify the business purpose of purchases made on fuel cards.
Finding 6
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education did not obtain the required number of price quotes for some of its training purchases. (p. 24)
Recommendation
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education should ensure it obtains the required number of price quotes for its purchases.
Finding 7
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education approved reimbursements for training without documentation demonstrating that qualified instructors provided the training. (p. 31)
Recommendations
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education should only approve training reimbursements when there is documentation demonstrating that qualified instructors provided the training.
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education should strengthen internal controls over training reimbursements to ensure sufficient documentation of qualified instructors is provided.
Finding 8
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education did not conduct required monitoring over the use of federal money. (p. 32)
Recommendations
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education should strengthen internal controls over federal training reimbursements to ensure appropriate monitoring is performed.
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education should conduct required monitoring over federal awards.
Finding 9
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education did not provide oversight of the aid it issued to Minnesota Firefighter Initiative, Minnesota Air Rescue Team, Arrowhead Regional Urban Search and Rescue, and Task Force 1. (p. 33)
Recommendations
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education should seek guidance from the Legislature and the Department of Public Safety regarding what oversight it should provide of the aid issued to Minnesota Firefighter Initiative, Minnesota Air Rescue Team, Arrowhead Regional Urban Search and Rescue, and Task Force 1.
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education should work with the Legislature and the Department of Public Safety to determine if they need additional authority to oversee the aid issued to Minnesota Firefighter Initiative, Minnesota Air Rescue Team, Arrowhead Regional Urban Search and Rescue, and Task Force 1.
Finding 10
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety did not deposit donations timely. (p. 36)
Recommendations
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should deposit donations in accordance with state law.
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The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education and the Department of Public Safety should strengthen internal controls to ensure deposits are made timely.
Finding 11
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education did not separate duties for its firefighter license receipts process and did not have necessary compensating controls. (p. 37)
Recommendation
The Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education should comply with state policy to adequately separate duties involved in collecting and depositing receipts.
